From alessandro at idsia.ch Mon May 5 13:58:06 2008 From: alessandro at idsia.ch (Alessandro Antonucci) Date: Mon May 5 16:47:29 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] 3rd SIPTA School on Imprecise Probabilities: last announcement Message-ID: <481EF64E.3040402@idsia.ch> 3rd SIPTA School on Imprecise Probabilities: last announcement [All our apologies for cross-posting.] Third school of the Society for Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications (SIPTA), July 2-8, 2008, Montpellier, France. Dear colleagues, The Society for Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications (SIPTA) organizes the 3rd edition of its school in Montpellier, France, during 2-8 July 2008, the local organization being handled by the Laboratoire d'Informatique de Robotique et de Microelectronique (LIRMM) of the university of Montpellier. The city of Montpellier is located in the south of France, on the Mediterranean coast, and the school will be held at the Centre Regional de Documentation Pedagogique, which is located in the very centre of Montpellier. The aim of SIPTA schools is to introduce interested students and researchers with the basics of imprecise probability topics, both theoretical and applied. Some of the best specialists in different aspects of imprecise probabilities lecture, during one week time, on the main concepts and techniques associated to their area of expertise, in a friendly environment favouring interactions between participants. Topics & Lecturers Imprecise probability is used as a generic term to cover all mathematical or statistical models which measure chance or uncertainty without sharp numerical probabilities. Imprecise probability models are needed in inference problems where the relevant information is scarce, vague or conflicting, and in decision problems where preferences may also be incomplete. The topics covered this year are the following: - A Unified view of uncertainty theories (Didier Dubois, France) - Coherent lower previsions (Enrique Miranda, Spain, and Gert De Cooman, Belgium) - Credal Networks: Theory and Applications, (Cassio P. de Campos, USA, and Fabio Cozman, Brazil) - Algorithms & approximation methods for Imprecise Probability (Fabio Cozman, Brazil, and Cassio P. de Campos, USA) - Independence concepts in Imprecise Probability (Fabio Cozman, Brazil) - Predictive inference: from Bayesian inference to Imprecise Probability (Jean-Marc Bernard, France) - Imprecise immediate predictions (Gert De Cooman, Belgium) - Robust Bayesian Analysis (Fabrizio Ruggeri, Italy) - Game-theoretic probability and its link with Imprecise Probability (Glenn Shafer, USA) The detailed program may be found on the school website. Pre-registration The number of participants is limited, and hence is subject to preliminary acceptance from our side. If you are interested by the SIPTA school, please inform us of your intention to participate as soon as possible, by means of a reply to this email, indicating your name, email, status and affiliation (this can also be done using the pre-registration form on the school's website). For the acceptance decision, we will also need (1) a short CV (1 or 2 pages maximum), (2) a short motivation letter, and (3) an e-mail from your PhD director, or your laboratory/unit/department director simply indicating that he supports your request to participate in the school. More information is available at the school website: http://www.lirmm.fr/SIPTASchool08/ We are looking forward to meeting you in Montpellier. We also welcome you to circulate this announcement around you. Best regards, Jean-Marc Bernard Kevin Loquin (for the scientific and organizing committees) From oschwart at aecom.yu.edu Mon May 5 15:55:45 2008 From: oschwart at aecom.yu.edu (oschwart@aecom.yu.edu) Date: Mon May 5 16:47:31 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoctoral position in computational/theoretical neuroscience Message-ID: <55338.129.98.90.132.1209995745.squirrel@netmail.aecom.yu.edu> Postdoctoral position in computational/theoretical neuroscience A postdoctoral position is available in the lab of Odelia Schwartz at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Our lab employs tools of computational and theoretical neuroscience, to study systems from the neural level through to perception and behavior. For example, we develop models of sensory processing based on the hypothesis that images and sounds have predictable and quantifiable statistical regularities to which the brain is sensitive. The models are constructed through interplay with physiological and psychophysical data. Example projects: (1) Learning the statistical structure of natural scenes, movies, and eye movement sequences; (2) Modeling how neural populations are affected by contextual information: spatially, what surrounds a given feature or object; and temporally, what has been observed in the past, i.e., adaptation. (3) Modeling hierarchical neural processing. For more information about the lab and recent publications, see: http://neuroscience.aecom.yu.edu/faculty/primary_faculty_pages/schwartz.html The candidate should have a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline, a strong quantitative background, and an interest in neuroscience. Prior experience would ideally include areas such as computational neuroscience, machine learning, statistics and/or signal processing. Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) offers a vibrant interdisciplinary environment, with a growing systems and computational contingent. AECOM is located in a quiet neighborhood of New York, only a short subway ride from Manhattan. Information about working at the AECOM, including housing for postdocs, can be found at: http://www.aecom.yu.edu/home/belfer_institute/ Initial appointment is for one year and renewable. Salary is competitive and will commensurate with experience. Please send inquiries; or a CV, short statement of research interests, and names and contact information of 3 references to: Odelia Schwartz oschwart@aecom.yu.edu From bowlby at bu.edu Mon May 5 19:20:04 2008 From: bowlby at bu.edu (Brian Bowlby) Date: Mon May 5 19:45:49 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] 12th ICCNS: Final Call for Registration Message-ID: <71CCADC2-F8DC-48F8-9660-9DA6CCA6FF1C@bu.edu> Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this email. FINAL CALL FOR REGISTRATION TWELFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS May 14?17, 2008 Boston University 677 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA http://www.cns.bu.edu/meetings/ Sponsored by the Boston University Center for Adaptive Systems, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (http://www.cns.bu.edu/), and Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (http://cns.bu.edu/CELEST/) with financial support from the National Science Foundation CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS: Workshop on Dynamics of Cortical-Hippocampal Interactions for Memory Guided Behavior: Neil Burgess, Howard Eichenbaum, Michael Hasselmo, David Redish, Trygve Solstad, David Touretzky Workshop on Computing with Neural Interfaces: Theodore Berger, John Donoghue, Donald Eddington, Phil Kennedy, Krishna Shenoy, John Wyatt Keynote Lecturers: Gyorgy Buzsaki and Gail Carpenter Invited Speakers: Cynthia Breazeal, Peter Dayan, Greg DeAngelis, Stephen Grossberg, Joy Hirsch, Ranu Jung, Gordon Logan, Javier Movellan, Charan Ranganath, John Reynolds, and Daniel Salzman Please visit the web site for conference details, including: --the registration form (http://cns-web.bu.edu/cns-meeting/registration.html ) --a presentation schedule (http://cns-web.bu.edu/cns-meeting/schedule.html ) --local lodging options (http://cns-web.bu.edu/cns-meeting/hotels.html) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080505/8aa9e8d9/attachment.html From elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org Tue May 6 11:22:13 2008 From: elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org (INCF - Elli Chatzopoulou) Date: Tue May 6 20:27:13 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] neuroinformatics congress: abstract submission deadline extended Message-ID: <48202345.4090107@incf.org> ***** Abstract submission deadline extended until Friday, May 9th, 23h59 PDT **** * /*NEW*/: All congress abstracts will be published by Frontiers in Neuroscience in a special issue and be attributed a DOI. Opportunities for students: Attendees of the INCF Autumn School from the EU are eligible to apply for funding to cover expenses for both the Neuroinformatics2008 congress and the INCF Autumn School. The awards are intended to cover low-price airfare, low-fare hostel accommodation for the full duration of the congress and the course (i.e. 5 nights), and the congress registration fee (early registration). We especially encourage students from new EU countries to apply. Course applicants who wish to apply for this funding should indicate this and provide an estimate of the traveling costs in their CV or Autumn School application. *Online registration and abstract submission at www.neuroinformatics2008.org* Neuroinformatics 2008 program: *Keynote Speakers:* * Mark Ellisman * Mitsuo Kawato * Mary Kennedy * Henry Markram * Idan Segev * David Van Essen *Workshops:* * /Future hardware challenges to scientific computing / Erik de Schutter (chair), Gabriel Wittum, Marc-Oliver Gewaltig, John Shalf * /Neurogenomics meets bioinformatics meets neuroinformatics in database research/ Robert Williams (chair), Ed Lein, Seth Grant, Kristen Harris * /Extraction of structural and functional information from brain images/ Ulla Ruotsalainen (chair), Katrin Amunts, Alan Evans, Thomas Mrsic-Fl?gel * /Challenges and benefits of multichannel electrophysiology/ Andrzej Wrobel (chair), Gy?rgy Buzsaki, Miguel Nicolelis, Xiaoqin Wang *Special session:* /Perspectives in funding research in neuroinformatics / Kathie Olsen, Wolfgang Boch The INCF Automn School on Methods in Neuroinformatics will be held in conjunction with the Congress, September 10 - 11. -- Elli Chatzopoulou, Ph.D. Scientific Information and Public Relations Officer International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Secretariat Karolinska Institutet Nobels v?g 15A SE-171 77 Stockholm Sweden Email: elli.chatzopoulou@incf.org Phone: +46 8 524 87491 Mobile: +46 7 614 87491 Fax: +46 8 524 87150 web: www.incf.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080506/036b20d8/attachment.html From romain.brette at ens.fr Wed May 7 18:56:59 2008 From: romain.brette at ens.fr (Romain Brette) Date: Thu May 8 10:57:01 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Brian: a pure Python neural simulator Message-ID: <4821DF5B.1090507@ens.fr> Brian: a pure Python neural simulator ------------------------------------- http://brian.di.ens.fr/ Brian is a new simulator for spiking neural networks available on almost all platforms. The motivation for this project is that a simulator should not only save the time of processors, but also the time of scientists. Brian is easy to learn and use, highly flexible and easily extensible. The Brian package itself and simulations using it are all written in the Python programming language, which is an easy, concise and highly developed language with many advanced features and development tools, excellent documentation and a large community of users providing support and extension packages. This makes Brian an excellent choice for teaching. Brian is being developed by Romain Brette (brette@di.ens.fr) and Dan Goodman (goodman@di.ens.fr). The web site (http://brian.di.ens.fr/) contains a few examples (click on Demo), installation instructions and the documentation. There is also a public forum where you can ask any questions: http://groups.google.fr/group/briansupport Romain Brette http://www.di.ens.fr/~brette/ From hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Thu May 8 10:46:52 2008 From: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pascal Hitzler) Date: Thu May 8 12:39:56 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CfP Journal Special Issue on Recurrent Neural Networks Message-ID: <4822BDFC.8030203@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de> Call for Papers: Journal Special Issue on == Perspectives and Challenges for Recurrent Neural Networks == Guest Editors: Marco Gori, Barbara Hammer, Pascal Hitzler, Guenther Palm Special issue of the Elsevier Journal of Algorithms in Cognition, Informatics and Logic http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622851/description = SCOPE = Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) enable flexible machine learning tools which can directly process spatiotemporal and other structured data and which offer a rich dynamic repertoire as time dependent systems. They promise to be efficient signal-processing models which are biologically plausible and optimally suited for a wide range of industrial applications on the one hand, and an explanation of cognitive phenomena of the human brain on the other hand. Despite these facts, however, the design of efficient training methods for RNNs as well as their mathematical investigation with respect to reliable information representation and generalization abilities when dealing with complex data structures is still a challenge. It has led to diverse approaches and architectures including echo and liquid-state-machines, long short term memory, recursive and graph networks, core neuro-symbolic integration, etc. Interestingly, very heterogeneous domains are included, such as logic, chaotic systems, and biological networks. The aim of the special issue is to bring together recent work developed in the field of recurrent information processing, which bridges the gap between different approaches and which sheds some light on canonical solutions or principled problems which occur in the context of recursive information processing when considered across the disciplines. = TOPICS = We particularly encourage submissions connected to the following non-exhaustive list of topics: - new learning paradigms of RNNs such as unsupervised learning or reservoire learning - biologically plausible methods - integration of RNNs and symbolic reasoning - universal approaches for general data structures such as sets or graphs - methods which address the generalization ability of RNNs - challenging applications which have the potential to be benchmark problems - visionary papers concerning the future of RNNs = SUBMISSIONS = Deadline for submissions is 18th of July, 2008. Submissions shall follow the guidelines laid out for the Journal of Algorithms in Cognition, Informatics and Logic, which can be found under . Submissions shall be sent as pdf to Pascal Hitzler, hitzler@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de = EDITORIAL BOARD = Guilherme da Alencar Barreto, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Brasil Monica Bianchini, University of Siena, Italy Howard Blair, Syracuse University, USA Hendrik Blockeel, KU Leuven, Belgium Mikael Boden, University of Queensland, Australia Matthew Cook, ETH Zuerich, Switzerland Artur d'Avila Garcez, City University London, UK Luc de Raedt, KU Leuven, Belgium Steffen Hoelldobler, TU Dresden, Germany Herbert Jaeger, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany Stefan C. Kremer, University of Guleph, Canada Kai-Uwe Kuehnberger, University of Osnabrueck, Germany Alessio Micheli, University of Pisa, Italy Barak Pearlmutter, NUI Maynooth, Ireland Juergen Schmidhuber, TU Munich, Germany Alessandro Sperduti, University of Padova, Italy Jochen Steil, University of Bielefeld, Germany Peter Tino, University of Bermingham, UK Edmondo Trentin, University of Siena, Italy Thomas Wennekers, University of Plymouth, UK This Call for Papers is available online under http://www.neural-symbolic.org/RNN_CfP.txt -- PD Dr. Pascal Hitzler Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe email: hitzler@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de fax: +49 721 608 6580 web: http://www.pascal-hitzler.de phone: +49 721 608 4751 http://www.neural-symbolic.org From abdellatif.nemri at umontreal.ca Thu May 8 22:53:12 2008 From: abdellatif.nemri at umontreal.ca (Abdellatif Nemri) Date: Fri May 9 11:08:39 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Who is going to write "Neuroscience" in Scholarpedia? Message-ID: <974498710805081353s38a3d0eakadf3f0f4a37d2770@mail.gmail.com> Scholarpedia is the open access encyclopedia hosting "Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience" and "Encyclopedia of Computational Intelligence". It attempts to partner the authority and responsibility of a printed encyclopedia with the dynamism and timeliness of a wiki. The goal of Scholarpedia is to invite today's best scientists to write articles on the topics of their expertise, so that these articles are maintained by the future generation of experts, say 50 years from now. For some articles, an election is organized, and users vote for whom they consider the most fitting author. We have recently initiated an election for the article entitled "Neuroscience". This very important article will define the field of neuroscience, and might serve as a portal to the subfields of neuroscience and to the many crossdisciplinary fields. As of now, four authors were suggested: Rodolfo Llinas (NYU) Dale Purves (Duke) Larry R. Squire (UCSD) Eric Kandel (Columbia) See http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Neuroscience To find the best author, we need to make this election as interesting as possible, and thus, your suggestions and nominations are very welcome. -- Abdellatif Nemri PhD student, Dept of Biological Sciences, University of Montreal Assistant Editor to Scholarpedia abdellatif.nemri@scholarpedia.org http://www.scholarpedia.org/ Editor-in-Chief: Eugene M. Izhikevich, PhD -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080508/9c6d7d5c/attachment.html From hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Fri May 9 20:28:48 2008 From: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pascal Hitzler) Date: Sat May 10 14:00:18 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Final CfP: ECAI-08 Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning, NeSy'08 Message-ID: <482497E0.3090009@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de> Deadline extended: May 16th!!! Fourth International Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning Workshop at ECAI2008, Patras, Greece, July 2008 http://www.neural-symbolic.org/NeSy08/ NeSy'05 took place at IJCAI-05 NeSy'06 took place at ECAI2006 NeSy'07 took place at IJCAI-07 Call for Papers --------------- Artificial Intelligence researchers continue to face huge challenges in their quest to develop truly intelligent systems. The recent developments in the field of neural-symbolic integration bring an opportunity to integrate well-founded symbolic artificial intelligence with robust neural computing machinery to help tackle some of these challenges. The Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning is intended to create an atmosphere of exchange of ideas, providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of the key topics related to neural-symbolic integration. Topics of interest include: * The representation of symbolic knowledge by connectionist systems; * Learning in neural-symbolic systems; * Extraction of symbolic knowledge from trained neural networks; * Reasoning in neural-symbolic systems; * Biological inspiration for neural-symbolic integration; * Neural networks and probabilities; * Applications in robotics, semantic web, engineering, bioinformatics, etc. Keynote speaker: Kai-Uwe K?hnberger, Osnabr?ck Submission Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit original papers that have not been submitted for review or published elsewhere. Submitted papers must be written in English and should not exceed 5 pages in the case of research and experience papers, and 2 pages in the case of position papers (including figures, bibliography and appendices) in ECAI2008 format as described in the ECAI2008 submissions and style guide (http://www.ece.upatras.gr/ecai2008/substyles.htm). All submitted papers will be judged based on their quality, relevance, originality, significance, and soundness. Papers must be submitted directly by email in PDF format to nesy@soi.city.ac.uk Presentation Selected papers will have to be presented during the workshop. The workshop will include extra time for audience discussion of the presentation allowing the group to have a better understanding of the issues, challenges, and ideas being presented. Publication Accepted papers will be published electronically in the CEUR workshop proceedings (bearing an ISSN number). Hardcopies will be distributed during the workshop. Authors of the best papers will be invited to submit a revised and extended version of their papers to the Journal of Logic and Computation, OUP. Important Dates Deadline for submission: May 16th, 2008 Notification of acceptance: May 30th, 2008 Camera-ready paper due: June 6th, 2008 Workshop date: July 21st or 22nd, 2008 ECAI2008 main conference dates: 21st to 25th of July, 2008 Workshop Organisers Artur d'Avila Garcez (City University London, UK) Pascal Hitzler (University Karlsruhe, Germany) Programme Committee (incomplete) Sebastian Bader, TU Dresden, Germany Howard Blair, Syracuse University, U.S.A. Luc de Raedt, KU Leuven, Belgium Marco Gori, University of Siena, Italy Barbara Hammer, TU Clausthal, Germany Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis, University of Patras, Greece Steffen H?lldobler, TU Dresden, Germany Ekaterina Komendantskaya, Sophia Antipolis, France Kai-Uwe K?hnberger, Osnabr?ck, Germany Luis Lamb, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Roberto Prevete, University of Naples, Italy Dan Roth, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A. Anthony K. Seda, University College Cork, Ireland Frank van der Velde, Leiden University, The Netherlands Gerson Zaverucha, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Additional Information General questions concerning the workshop should be addressed to nesy@soi.city.ac.uk. -- PD Dr. Pascal Hitzler Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe email: hitzler@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de fax: +49 721 608 6580 web: http://www.pascal-hitzler.de phone: +49 721 608 4751 http://www.neural-symbolic.org From Randy.OReilly at colorado.edu Sun May 11 10:27:07 2008 From: Randy.OReilly at colorado.edu (Randall C. O'Reilly) Date: Tue May 13 15:49:19 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Programmer/SysAdmin Position at CU Boulder Message-ID: <200805110227.07726.Randy.OReilly@colorado.edu> Please forward this job ad to anyone you think might be interested. Thanks, - Randy The Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder is seeking applications for an experienced computer support specialist for system administration and programming related to neuroimaging (fMRI, ERP) and computational modeling work within the Institute. This person will help purchase and manage a large new computer cluster (and Mac & Linux desktop machines connected to it) for neuroimaging data analysis and neural network simulations, and write scripts and programs needed for these tasks. Required: Bachelor's degree and 2 years experience in a relevant work environment. Desired: Linux system administration and clustering software (PBS, Maui, MPI, Sun Grid Engine, RAID and other advanced data storage systems, network files systems), MATLAB, R, scripting languages (bash, python, perl, tcl), and C++. The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to providing a safe and productive learning and living community. To achieve that goal, we conduct background investigations for all final applicants being considered for employment. The University of Colorado is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment. Please apply at www.jobsatcu.com -- do search postings and enter job posting no. 804077 -- can then upload Resume/Vitae, Cover Letter, and References. From elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org Mon May 12 11:27:05 2008 From: elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org (INCF - Elli Chatzopoulou) Date: Tue May 13 15:49:23 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] INCF MUSIC project: request for comments Message-ID: <48280D69.6040300@incf.org> The INCF has engaged in the development of software that allows large scale neuron simulators to communicate during runtime. An RFC - Request For Comments - document is now available and open for comments on the proposed design and prototype specifications. MUSIC (Multi-Simulation Coordinator) is a project under the INCF Program on Large-Scale Modeling of the Nervous System. The aim of the INCF MUSIC project is to provide a standardized software interface (an API) on top of the message passing interface (MPI) for communication between parallel applications for large-scale simulation of neural networks. It enables the transfer of massive amounts of event information and continuous values from one parallel application to another, including applications that use different data allocation strategies. In the design of the standard interface, care has also been taken to facilitate easy adaptation of existing simulators and enable straight-forward independent third-party development and community sharing of reusable and interoperable software tools for parallel processing. See http://www.incf.org/programs/modeling/music-multi-simulation-coordinator for more. Download the MUSIC RFC [pdf]: http://www.incf.org/documents/music-rfc.pdf For comments, you can use the mailing list at music-rfc@incf.org to which you can subscribe here: http://lists.incf.org/mailman/listinfo/music-rfc Many thanks to ?rjan Ekeberg and Mikael Djurfeldt for their excellent work so far. -- Elli Chatzopoulou, Ph.D. Scientific Information and Public Relations Officer International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Secretariat Karolinska Institutet Nobels v?g 15A SE-171 77 Stockholm Sweden Email: elli.chatzopoulou@incf.org Phone: +46 8 524 87491 Mobile: +46 7 614 87491 Fax: +46 8 524 87150 web: www.incf.org From steve at cns.bu.edu Tue May 13 01:24:15 2008 From: steve at cns.bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Tue May 13 15:49:24 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] linking object category learning, spatial and object attention, and eye movement search Message-ID: The following article is now available at http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossberg : Fazl, A., Grossberg, S., & Mingolla, E. View-invariant object category learning, recognition, and search: How spatial and object attention are coordinated using surface-based attentional shrouds. Cognitive Psychology, in press. ABSTRACT How does the brain learn to recognize an object from multiple viewpoints while scanning a scene with eye movements? How does the brain avoid the problem of erroneously classifying parts of different objects together? How are attention and eye movements intelligently coordinated to facilitate object learning? A neural model provides a unified mechanistic explanation of how spatial and object attention work together to search a scene and learn what is in it. The ARTSCAN model predicts how an object's surface representation generates a form-fitting distribution of spatial attention, or "attentional shroud." All surface representations dynamically compete for spatial attention to form a shroud. The winning shroud persists during active scanning of the object. The shroud maintains sustained activity of an emerging view-invariant category representation while multiple view-specific category representations are learned and are linked through associative learning to the view-invariant object category. The shroud also helps to restrict scanning eye movements to salient features on the attended object. Object attention plays a role in controlling and stabilizing the learning of view-specific object categories. Spatial attention hereby coordinates the deployment of object attention during object category learning. Shroud collapse releases a reset signal that inhibits the active view-invariant category in the What cortical processing stream. Then a new shroud, corresponding to a different object, forms in the Where cortical processing stream, and search using attention shifts and eye movements continues to learn new objects throughout a scene. The model mechanistically clarifies basic properties of attention shifts (engage, move, disengage) and inhibition of return. It simulates human reaction time data about object-based spatial attention shifts, and learns with 98.1% accuracy and a compression of 430 on a letter database whose letters vary in size, position, and orientation. The model provides a powerful framework for unifying many data about spatial and object attention, and their interactions during perception, cognition, and action. Keywords: category learning, view-based learning, object recognition, spatial attention, object attention, parietal cortex, inferotemporal cortex, saccadic eye movements, attentional shroud, Adaptive Resonance Theory, surface perception, V2, V3A, V4, PPC, LIP, basal ganglia. From sean.hill at epfl.ch Tue May 13 18:34:52 2008 From: sean.hill at epfl.ch (Sean Hill) Date: Wed May 14 10:47:28 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Blue Brain Project Satellite Meeting FENS 2008 Message-ID: <2C353C68-CB7C-4C7E-9E5C-80F6AF095EE4@epfl.ch> The Blue Brain Project is hosting a satellite meeting just before the FENS 2008 meeting at the PalEXPO center in Geneva, Switzerland, from July 10-11, 2008. Registration for this meeting is now open with a limited number of spaces available. It is recommended to register as soon as possible as registration will close as soon as the available spaces are filled. Register at http://bluebrain.epfl.ch A limited number of poster spaces are also available for presenting relevant research. Please submit an abstract to sean.hill@epfl.ch by June 15th. The Blue Brain Project: Reverse-Engineering Biological Intelligence Biological intelligence exists in the organizing principles of biological networks, from gene regulatory networks, to signaling and metabolic networks, to the complex neural circuitry of the brain. Reverse-engineering in systems biology has traditionally focused on the reconstruction of these networks within individual cells based on measured data of the genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome. In computational neuroscience, reverse engineering has focused on networks of cells in the brain. However, reverse-engineering efforts must seek and characterize the organizing principles across all types of biological networks. In order to achieve this level of reverse engineering, industrial scale efforts are required to systematically gather biological data and assemble computational models to explore the solutions biology has engineered to build living cells and produce intelligence. The Blue Brain Project invites you to join an open discussion on future directions in reverse engineering large-scale biological systems, with presentations from world experts in systems biology, simulation and computing. This meeting will also provide a unique opportunity to hear from the Blue Brain team itself, with presentations on the tools and workflow of reconstructing and simulating the neocortical column. Day 1: Reverse Engineering Biological Intelligence A group of experts in systems biology and neuroscience present their visions for the future of large-scale systems biology efforts. Confirmed speakers: Henry Markram - Blue Brain Project and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL Michel Baudry - Rhenovia and University of Southern California Mark Ellisman - UCSD Mark Potse - University of Montreal Thomas Bartol - The Salk Institute Gustavo Stolovitzky - IBM Research Day 2: Morning: Grand-Challenge Computing for Neuroscience The day starts out with a review, by the experts in their fields, of the grand challenge problems in databasing, modeling, simulation, visualization and computing architectures for systems biology and neuroscience. Confirmed speakers: Felix Schuermann - Blue Brain Project Michael Hawrylycz - The Allen Institute Alan Gara - IBM Research Day 2: Afternoon: Blue Brain Workshop An in-depth look at the current Blue Brain Project toolchain and calibration process. Confirmed speakers: Michael Hines - Yale University Shaul Druckmann - Hebrew University Imad Riachi - Blue Brain Project Sean Hill - Blue Brain Project We look forward to seeing you in Geneva. -- Sean Hill Project Manager for Computational Neuroscience Blue Brain Project Brain Mind Institute EPFL - AAB 2 01 CH-1015 Lausanne Switzerland sean.hill@epfl.ch From triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de Wed May 14 11:13:50 2008 From: triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de (Jochen Triesch) Date: Wed May 14 12:15:15 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] 14 open PhD and Post-doc positions in computational vision Message-ID: <482AAD4E.2090709@fias.uni-frankfurt.de> The planned Frankfurt Bernstein Center for Neurotechnology (http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/bernstein) offers a range of post-doc and PhD positions (14 in total, pending final approval) for theoretical research in: * computational neuroscience * computer vision * machine learning * developmental robotics The initiative will combine basic research in these fields to develop integrated and autonomously learning vision systems. We are looking for highly qualified PhD students and Post-docs who have graduated in any of the subjects above or in related fields such as physics, computer science, engineering, mathematics etc. In general, candidates are required to have a strong analytical background and good programming skills. Good communication skills in English are essential. Research is carried out in international groups located at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/), the Computer Science Dept. of the University of Frankfurt (http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/), the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (http://www.mpih-frankfurt.mpg.de/), the Honda Research Institute Europe (http://www.honda-ri.de/) and other associated research centers. All collaborating institutions are located in and around the cosmopolitan city of Frankfurt in the heart of Europe. More specifically, positions will be available for the following projects: * Cue-Integration in Large-Scale Multi-Modal Sensory Systems * Learning in Hierarchical Memories of Objects * Analysis of Non-linear Dynamical Systems * Generative Models for Learning and Visual Recognition under Realistic Conditions * On-Camera Foveated Vision (FPGA Implementation) * Development of Hardware and Software for Massively Parallel Implementation of Brain-inspired Vision Systems * Structural Learning of Motion and Depth Estimation * Neural Models of Normal and Abnormal Visual Development in Human Infancy * Dynamical Coordination of Neuronal Responses in Object Representation in the Visual Cortex * Neural Models of the Development of Visual Memory in Infants * The Role of Feedback Signals in Visual Processing Applications to any of the projects above are centrally collected and should be sent to Mrs. Andrea Schoepski . Candidates should list 1-3 projects that interest them. Required Application Materials: * Complete Curriculum Vitae * Copy of Masters or Diploma certificate * Copy of PhD certificate, if applicable * Statement of research interests and achievements * Two or three Letters of Reference * TOEFL or similar proof of proficiency in English Image files of scanned documents are acceptable. Alternatively, you may send ordinary mail to the address: Frankfurt Bernstein Center for Neurotechnology c/o FIAS Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Ruth-Moufang-Str. 1 60438 Frankfurt am Main Germany The review of applications will begin immediately. -- Prof. Dr. Jochen Triesch Johanna Quandt Research Professor Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Web: http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~triesch/ Tel: +49 (0)69 798-47531 Fax: +49 (0)69 798-47611 From pprodrigues at liaad.up.pt Wed May 14 13:24:36 2008 From: pprodrigues at liaad.up.pt (Pedro Pereira Rodrigues) Date: Wed May 14 16:48:43 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CFP IBERAMIA 2008 - Lisbon - Deadline Extended Message-ID: <482ACBF4.9020703@liaad.up.pt> Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: pprodrigues.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 335 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080514/eedc26bb/pprodrigues.vcf From gustavo.deco at upf.edu Wed May 14 16:13:39 2008 From: gustavo.deco at upf.edu (Gustavo Deco) Date: Wed May 14 16:48:44 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] (no subject) Message-ID: <200805141613.39249.gustavo.deco@upf.edu> Please distribute: COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE POST-DOCTORAL POSITION AVAILABLE Date: April 2008 Employer: Prof. Dr. Gustavo Deco, Foundation Barcelona Media / Technology Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Applications are invited for a Post-Doctoral positions in the Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Group at the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain, commencing immediately. The project: "Large scale interactions in brain networks and their breakdown in brain diseases" (European FP7) The overall goal of this project is to understand how neuronal assemblies exchange information (functional neuronal communication), and how variability in neuronal communication explains variability in behaviour, both in the healthy and injured brain. Neural communication involves temporal interactions, not only locally within an area but also on a larger-scale between brain areas. We focus on large-scale interactions that arise at two distinct but potentially related temporal scales: 'slow' (~0.1 Hz) fluctuations of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal, as readily measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); and 'fast' (1-150 Hz) neuronal oscillations, as can be measured at various spatial scales (e.g. multi-unit activity (MUA) and local field potentials (LFP) at fine spatial scale; magnetoencephalography (MEG) at intermediate scale; electroencephalography (EEG). In our group, we are responsible for the modeling part. The candidates are expected to have a PhD in Neuroscience, Physics, or Mathematics. Specific requirements are: ? ? * Have a PhD; ? ? * Motivation to pursue a career in research; ? ? * Excellent spoken and written English; ? ? * Be eligible for and obtain a valid visa (where required) for postdoctoral residence; ? ? * Have a good publication record in peer-reviewed international proceedings and journals. Please send gustavo.deco at upf dot edu 1. CV; 2. Motivation letter describing research interests, prospective controbution to our projects and career vision; 3. Three letters of reference; 4. Full list of publications and copy of the three most representative ones. 5. Any other documents (publication, award, etc.) to support your application Selected postdoctoral students receive an office, computer, access to all facilities and will be involved in the managment and development of the challenging research projects. Only applications containing items 1-5 will be considered. If you do not hear from us within 4 weeks of sending the documents, it means that your application was not retained. Documents won't be returned (please do not send originals). Applications can be sent immediately and will be processed in the order received until the positions are filled. -- Prof. Dr. Gustavo Deco Computational Neuroscience Departament of Technology Universitat Pompeu Fabra Passeig de Circumval?laci?, 8 E-08003 Barcelona, Spain +34 93 542 2977 (voice) +34 93 542 2451 (fax) http://cns.upf.edu/ From frederic.jurie at unicaen.fr Wed May 14 22:55:05 2008 From: frederic.jurie at unicaen.fr (frederic jurie) Date: Thu May 15 11:32:59 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Call for papers: International Workshop on Faces in Real-Life Images In-Reply-To: <482B4FDA.2090403@gmail.com> References: <482B4FDA.2090403@gmail.com> Message-ID: <000d01c8b604$c9cc6840$5d6538c0$@jurie@unicaen.fr> International Workshop on Faces in Real-Life Images: Detection, Alignment, and Recognition (In conjunction with ECCV 2008) Call for Papers Electronic submission due: July 23, 2008. Decisions: August 15, 2008. Camera ready due: August 25, 2008 There is rapidly increasing interest in the field of face recognition in image and videos; while there has been a great deal of progress in the past 10 years, much of the work is restricted to constrained settings in which one or more of the many variables that affect appearance, such as lighting, pose, or facial expression, has been controlled. We believe that focusing specifically on 'real-life' data sets will foster the development of new and more general techniques, and will ultimately result in more flexible face recognition systems. This is a new and interesting emergent direction, and we will make this workshop the right place for discussion and for the sharing of ideas on this topic. One aim of the workshop is to encourage collaboration between researchers who do face detection and recognition but may not be familiar with more general object recognition techniques, and those who do object recognition work but have not considered the application of their methods to the face recognition problem. It is interesting to note that one of the best known algorithms for unconstrained face recognition using random forests does not appear on the "Face Recognition Web Page". This is probably because the algorithm is known as a generic object recognition algorithm. We want to bring together people from the "object recognition" community and the "face recognition" community, and try to understand if they are distinct only for historical reasons or if they rely on different foundations. We solicit contributions in two categories. Category A: Novel methods in Detection, Alignment, and Recognition Papers in this category should present novel scientific contributions in the detection, alignment, or recognition of faces. We are particularly interested in the domain of unconstrained faces in which faces are not presented in a laboratory controlled setting. We encourage authors to show their results on the LFW database, although this is not essential for publication. We are also interested in relationships among detection, alignment and recognition. For example, how can recognition algorithms be used to improve detection performance? Or how do various alignment algorithms effect standard recognition algorithms? We are also interested in the use of hidden variable models, random field models, and other probabilistic models for solving any of these problems. Methods that incorporate an unsupervised, semi-supervised, or transfer learning method are also solicited. Category B: Unconstrained Face Recognition Challenge. The goal of these submissions is to compare algorithms for the unconstrained face recognition problem, and should present results on the Labeled Faces in the Wild database . Authors may submit either a short paper or a regular paper in this Category. For short papers (two pages or less), the authors need only include face recognition results, as described below. These results will be summarized and described by the organizers during the workshop. Authors may give a short description of their methods or refer to other publications which give the details of the algorithms used. Short papers will not appear as separate publications in the workshop proceedings, but will be described collectively in a single summary article describing results on the challenge. For regular papers (of standard ECCV format and length), authors should fully describe algorithms so that the code can be recreated by others. If accepted, these papers will be included in the proceedings of the workshop, but the authors may or may not be allocated an oral presentation, depending upon time availability. Papers that are submitted both to the main ECCV conference and to the workshop will be considered. Details of the LFW database, including formats of data, and organization of training, validation, and testing components, are described in the LFW technical report. It is not essential that an algorithm achieve state-of-the-art performance in order to be published at the workshop, although performance of the algorithm will be an important criterion in establishing the quality of the work. Papers that do not achieve state-of-the-art results may be published in the workshop proceedings depending upon the novelty of the proposed methods, but may not be allocated a talk, since the workshop time is limited. Such contributions will be summarized in a presentation on the overall Unconstrained Face Recognition Challenge. Performance Reporting. Every paper in Category B should report the estimated mean accuracy and the standard error of the mean, as defined on page 7 of the LFW technical report. Users should report results for image-restricted training (described in Section IV.A. of the technical report), but may also report results for unrestricted training (Section IV.B.) if desired. We also encourage authors to submit with their papers data files of results allow the creation of Precision-Recall curves. Instructions about the format of these files will be posted shortly. Format of papers For both Categories of papers, please use the standard ECCV template for paper submissions, including the short papers. Submissions should NOT be anonymous. Papers longer than 14 pages will be returned without review. There is no minimum paper length. website: https://www.cs.umass.edu/~elm/realfaces From rfgalan at gmail.com Thu May 15 15:38:38 2008 From: rfgalan at gmail.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Roberto_Fern=E1ndez_Gal=E1n?=) Date: Thu May 15 15:49:49 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] spontaneous activity patterns and network architecture Message-ID: Dear colleagues, I am glad to announce the publication of the paper "On how network architecture determines the dominant patterns of spontaneous neural activity" in PLoS One: http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002148 Along the lines of previous studies, we have modeled spontaneous network activity as a stochastic, multivariate linear process, which allows us to show the relationship between the principal components of the spontaneous activity and the network architecture. The spontaneous activity simulated this way resembles the celebrated phenomenon of cortical songs. In addition, the equivalence between the principal components and the attractors of the spontaneous activity is demonstrated. I will be happy to answer any questions about the paper. Sincerely, Roberto. -- Roberto Fern?ndez Gal?n, PhD Assistant Professor of Neurosciences Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland OH, 44106-4975, USA Phone: (001) 216 368 0811 Email: rfgalan@case.edu http://neurosciences.case.edu/faculty/galan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080515/05e0a721/attachment.html From 1c15501 at gmail.com Thu May 15 17:52:22 2008 From: 1c15501 at gmail.com (Raymond Chiong) Date: Thu May 15 18:25:10 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Call for Chapters - Nature-Inspired Optimisation, Springer SCI Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, We have received many good proposals during the first round of our call for chapters. In this second round, we would like to focus particularly on the following areas: (1) novel algorithms for optimisation (2) optimisation in planning, scheduling and timetabling problems (3) the use of artificial immune systems in optimisation If you are interested in this publication, please drop me a short reply at rchiong@swinburne.edu.my. Best wishes, Raymond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CALL FOR CHAPTERS ================== Proposals Submission Deadline: 31 MAY 2008 (flexible) Full Chapters Due: 15 JULY 2008 (strict deadline) Nature-Inspired Algorithms for Optimisation A volume edited by Raymond Chiong To be published by Springer-Verlag in the series Studies in Computational Intelligence (SCI) Book Objectives & Mission: Nature has always been a source of inspiration. In recent years, new concepts, techniques and computational applications stimulated by nature are being continually proposed and exploited to solve a wide range of optimisation problems in diverse fields. Various kinds of nature-inspired algorithms have been designed and applied, and many of them are producing high quality solutions to a variety of real-world applications and optimisation problems, including scheduling, manufacturing, logistics, space allocation, stock cutting, anomaly detection, engineering design, software testing, bioinformatics and data mining, etc. The success of these algorithms has led to competitive advantages and cost savings not only to the industry but also the society at large. The use of nature-inspired algorithms stands out to be promising due to the fact that many real-world problems have become increasingly complex. The size and complexity of the optimisation problems nowadays require the development of methods and solutions whose efficiency is measured by their ability to find acceptable results within a reasonable amount of time. Despite there is no guarantee of finding the optimal solution, approaches based on the influence of biology and life sciences such as evolutionary algorithms, neural networks, ant systems, swarm intelligence, artificial immune systems, and many others have been shown to be highly practical and provided state-of-the-art solutions to various optimisation problems. The aim of this book is to provide a central source of reference by collecting and disseminating the progressive body of knowledge on nature-inspired algorithms and their applications. The main focus will be the implementation of novel nature-inspired solutions for optimisation based on empirical studies. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Methods: -evolutionary algorithms -memetic algorithms -neural networks -artificial life -particle swarm optimisation -ant colony optimisation -artificial immune systems -membrane, molecular, cellular and DNA computing -tabu search, simulated annealing, etc -hybrid methods with metaheuristics, machine learning, game theory, mathematical programming, constraint programming, co-evolutionary learning, etc Applications: -evolutionary games -evolutionary economics -production, logistics and transportation -telecommunications and engineering design -planning, scheduling and timetabling -bioinformatics and data mining -grid computing and computer security -software testing and software self assembly -numerical and combinatorial optimisation -multi-objective optimisation, dynamic optimisation, problems with uncertainty, etc -integration of natural computing techniques in intelligent systems -optimisation strategies in robotics path planning, task allocation and coordination -optimisation and control of highly nonlinear, large scale or networked engineering -successful optimisations in the fields of business, science and engineering Submission Procedure: Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before May 31, 2008 a 1-2 page proposal to rchiong@swinburne.edu.my clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified in 2-3 weeks time about the status of their proposals. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by July 15, 2008. All submitted chapters will be reviewed by at least three reviewers. About the series Studies in Computational Intelligence: The series Studies in Computational Intelligence (SCI) publishes new developments and advances in the various areas of computational intelligence - quickly and with a high quality. The intent is to cover the theory, applications, and design methods of computational intelligence, as embedded in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics and life science, as well as the methodologies behind them. The series contains monographs, lecture notes and edited volumes in computational intelligence spanning the areas of neural networks, connectionist systems, genetic algorithms, evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence, cellular automata, self-organising systems, soft computing, fuzzy systems, and hybrid intelligent systems. Critical to both contributors and readers are the short publication time and world-wide distribution - this permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research results. Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically or by mail to: Raymond Chiong Head of Intelligent Informatics Research Group School of Computing & Design Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak Campus) State Complex, 93576 Kuching Sarawak, Malaysia Tel.: +60 82 416 353 ? Fax: +60 82 423 594 E-mail: rchiong@swinburne.edu.my -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080515/6bef0990/attachment-0001.html From beckmann at fmrib.ox.ac.uk Thu May 15 22:27:38 2008 From: beckmann at fmrib.ox.ac.uk (Christian F. Beckmann) Date: Fri May 16 11:07:37 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] final CfP: BCS08 - Visions of Computer Science - deadline extended Message-ID: <01038F6E-792E-463A-BAED-740422933279@fmrib.ox.ac.uk> The deadline for submission has been extended to Tue 20th May 2008. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The British Computer Society International Academic Research Conference Visions of Computer Science Imperial College London September 22-24, 2008 See http://www.bcs.org/visions Keynote Speakers: Fran Allen (IBM) Vint Cerf (Google) Tony Hoare (Microsoft) Richard Karp (Berkeley) Robin Milner (Cambridge) Michael Rabin (Harvard) Joseph Sifakis (Verimag) Submissions are being solicited in all areas of research covering the broad ?eld of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). The relevant dates for authors are: ? extended submission deadline: 20 May 2008 ? noti?cation: 13 July 2008 ? camera-ready: 31 July 2008 The proceedings will be published by the BCS as a book and in their electronic proceedings series (www.bcs.org/ewic), and a special issue of The Computer Journal (comjnl.oxfordjournals.org) will be dedicated to a collection of the best papers. _______________________________________________ Christian F. Beckmann, DPhil Senior Lecturer, Clinical Neuroscience Department Division of Neuroscience and Mental Health Imperial College London Hammersmith Hospital - London W12 0NN Tel.: +44 (0) 208 383 3722 --- Fax: +44 (0) 208 383 2029 Email: c.beckmann@imperial.ac.uk http://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/people/c.beckmann/ Senior Research Fellow, FMRIB Centre University of Oxford JR Hospital - Oxford OX3 9DU Tel.: +44 (0) 1865 222551 --- Fax: +44 (0) 1865 222717 Email: beckmann@fmrib.ox.ac.uk http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/~beckmann -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080515/28ca5375/attachment.html From eero at cns.nyu.edu Fri May 16 00:36:15 2008 From: eero at cns.nyu.edu (Eero Simoncelli) Date: Fri May 16 11:07:39 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Conference: Sensory Coding and the Natural Environment, 28 July - 3 Aug 2008, in Tuscany Message-ID: <920F77AE-0A4F-46FD-A98D-55B6B1DF898D@cns.nyu.edu> Dear Colleague, The 4th Gordon Research Conference on Sensory Coding and the Natural Environment will take place in Il Ciocco, Italy from 28 July to 3 August, 2008. The meeting is intended to bring together an interdisciplinary collection of researchers interested in understanding the representation and use of ecologically relevant sensory signals in biological systems, along with those interested in characterizing the structure of those signals. The list of invited speakers is provided below. * The full program, and information about registration and submission of abstracts for poster presentation, is available at: http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2008&program=senscod * When registering, you have the option of submitting an abstract for a poster. Submitted abstracts may be revised up until mid-July. * Registration is open until mid-July, *but* is subject to availability (attendance is limited to 150). Eero Simoncelli and Michael Berry Co-Chairs, Sensory Coding and the Natural Environment, 2008 A Gordon Research Conference ---------------------------------------- SESSION LIST: Scene Statistics and Principles of Nervous System Design Daniel Wolpert, Roland Baddeley Natural Olfaction Gilles Laurent (session chair), Tim Holy, Noam Sobel, Rachel Wilson Adaptation Markus Meister (session chair), Michael Webster, David McAlpine Natural Audition: Neural Kamal Sen (session chair), Tim Gentner, Jan Schnupp, Tatyana Sharpee Natural Audition: Perception Timothy Griffiths (session chair), Josh McDermott, Rhodri Cusack Active Sensation Mathew E. Diamond (session chair), Cynthia Moss, Michele Rucci, Moritz von Heimendahl Statistical Models and Analysis of Natural Scenes Odelia Schwartz (session chair), Mattias Bethge, Maneesh Sahani Natural Vision: Early to Mid Stages David Brainard (session chair), Dario Ringach, Emilio Salinas, Larry Maloney Natural Vision: Late Stages Aude Oliva (session chair), Ed Conner, Jitendra Malik From tobias at nld.ds.mpg.de Fri May 16 10:01:52 2008 From: tobias at nld.ds.mpg.de (Tobias Niemann) Date: Fri May 16 11:07:41 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoctoral and PhD student positions in Neurophysics In-Reply-To: <47DF9A94.8000309@nld.ds.mpg.de> References: <46F11EC5.4050208@nld.ds.mpg.de> <47DF9A94.8000309@nld.ds.mpg.de> Message-ID: <482D3F70.8030903@nld.ds.mpg.de> The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience G?ttingen invites applications for Postdoctoral and PhD student positions in Neurophysics Research will experimentally probe and control the dynamics of living neural networks using innovative optical stimulation methods and will be part of an integrated project of the Max Planck Institutes for Dynamics and Self-Organization, for Experimental Medicine, and for Biophysics (Frankfurt) and will be an integral part of the activities of G?ttingen University?s Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience. The successful candidate will play a key role in the design and construction of optical stimulation systems, in which cultured neuronal cells are stimulated using light sensitive ion channels and pumps and in which their activity is monitored through multielectrode arrays. PhD students will work towards their doctorate in G?ttingen University?s newly established Graduate School, GGNB. We are looking for young researchers with a background in Physics, Engineering, or Computer Science and a keen interest in interdisciplinary research at the border of Neuroscience and the Physics of Complex Systems. The ideal candidate will have the ability and desire to establish experimental paradigms and innovative instrumentation for the analysis and control of living neural networks. Prior experience in experimental Biophysics, Electrophysiology, or Optics would be advantageous. Prior knowledge of neurobiology is desirable but not required. G?ttingen is a center of neuroscience in Europe hosting numerous internationally recognized neuroscience research institutions, including three Max Planck Institutes, the European Neuroscience Institute, the German Primate Research Center, and G?ttingen University's Centers for Systems Neuroscience (ZNV) and for the Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CMPB). The BCCN integrates theoretical and experimental research groups from these institutions to foster interdisciplinary research in computational neuroscience specifically supporting close collaboration between theorists and experimental researchers. Please submit your application preferably in one single PDF-document, including cover letter, CV, list of publications, names of possible referees, relevant certificates until June 15, 2008, to: jobs@bccn-goettingen.de (Subject: NPhysChop2) While e-mail is preferred, applications may also be submitted in hardcopy to the following address: Dr. Fred Wolf Subject: NPhysChop2 Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) G?ttingen Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Bunsenstrasse 10 D - 37073 G?ttingen, Germany http://www.ds.mpg.de The MPIDS is an equal opportunity employer. From tobias at nld.ds.mpg.de Fri May 16 11:30:31 2008 From: tobias at nld.ds.mpg.de (Tobias Niemann) Date: Sat May 17 14:08:01 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoctoral and PhD student positions in cellular neurophysics/neurophysiology In-Reply-To: <482D3F70.8030903@nld.ds.mpg.de> References: <46F11EC5.4050208@nld.ds.mpg.de> <47DF9A94.8000309@nld.ds.mpg.de> <482D3F70.8030903@nld.ds.mpg.de> Message-ID: <482D5437.6090809@nld.ds.mpg.de> The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience G?ttingen invites applications for a Postdoctoral and PhD student positions in cellular neurophysics/neurophysiology The candidates?s research will experimentally analyze the dynamical properties of sodium channels in neocortical neurons in situ and model their role in the operation of cortical neurons and networks and will be part of an integrated international project of the Max Planck Institutes for Dynamics and Self-Organization (G?ttingen) and the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), supported by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development. PhD students will work towards their doctorate either in G?ttingen University?s newly established Graduate School, GGNB or at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. We are looking for young researchers with a background in biophysics, cellular electrophysiology, or cell biology and a keen interest in interdisciplinary research at the border of experimental and theoretical neuroscience. The ideal candidate will have the ability and desire to push the characterization of cortical sodium currents in intact cortical neurons to a new level of quantitative precision and to analyze their role in the operation of cortical neurons under physiologically realistic conditions. Prior experience with the biophysics of ion channels, with the electrophysiology of neurons, or with cellular imaging methods would be advantageous. Prior knowledge of Neurobiology is desirable but not required. G?ttingen is a center of neuroscience in Europe hosting numerous internationally recognized neuroscience research institutions, including three Max Planck Institutes, the European Neuroscience Institute, the German Primate Research Center, and G?ttingen University's Centers for Systems Neuroscience (ZNV) and for the Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CMPB). The BCCN integrates theoretical and experimental research groups from these institutions to foster interdisciplinary research in computational neuroscience specifically supporting close collaboration between theorists and experimental researchers. Please submit your application preferably in one single PDF-document, including cover letter, CV, list of publications, names of possible referees, relevant certificates until June 15, 2008, to: jobs@bccn-goettingen.de (Subject: NPhysNaCh) While e-mail is preferred, applications may also be submitted in hardcopy to the following address: Dr. Fred Wolf Subject: NPhysNaCh Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) G?ttingen Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Bunsenstrasse 10 D - 37073 G?ttingen, Germany http://www.ds.mpg.de The MPIDS is an equal opportunity employer. From tobias at nld.ds.mpg.de Fri May 16 11:50:13 2008 From: tobias at nld.ds.mpg.de (Tobias Niemann) Date: Sat May 17 14:08:02 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD student positions in theoretical Neurophysics In-Reply-To: <482D5437.6090809@nld.ds.mpg.de> References: <46F11EC5.4050208@nld.ds.mpg.de> <47DF9A94.8000309@nld.ds.mpg.de> <482D3F70.8030903@nld.ds.mpg.de> <482D5437.6090809@nld.ds.mpg.de> Message-ID: <482D58D5.3070005@nld.ds.mpg.de> The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience G?ttingen invites applications for PhD student positions in theoretical Neurophysics The student?s research will analyze dynamical self-organization of the functional architecture of neocortical networks in mathematical models and through the quantitative analysis of high resolution live imaging data from neocortical networks in the living brain. The student?s research will be part of an integrated international project of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (G?ttingen), the Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA) and the University of Tokyo (Japan), supported by the Human Frontier Science Program Organization. PhD students will work towards their doctorate in G?ttingen University?s newly established Graduate School, GGNB and collaborate closely with researchers in the US and Japan. We are looking for young researchers with a strong background in computational and theoretical physics or in dynamical systems theory and probabilistic data analysis with a keen interest in interdisciplinary research at the border of Neuroscience and the Physics of Complex Systems. The ideal candidate will have the ability and desire to develop novel approaches for the analysis of dynamical self-organization in living neural networks and to closely collaborate with biological researchers in implementing them in quantitative live imaging experiments. Prior experience in Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Theoretical Neuroscience would be advantageous. Prior knowledge of Neurobiology is desirable but not required. G?ttingen is a center of neuroscience in Europe hosting numerous internationally recognized neuroscience research institutions, including three Max Planck Institutes, the European Neuroscience Institute, the German Primate Research Center, and G?ttingen University's Centers for Systems Neuroscience (ZNV) and for the Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CMPB). The BCCN integrates theoretical and experimental research groups from these institutions to foster interdisciplinary research in computational neuroscience specifically supporting close collaboration between theorists and experimental researchers. Please submit your application preferably in one single PDF-document, including cover letter, CV, list of publications, names of possible referees, relevant certificates until June 15, 2008, to: jobs@bccn-goettingen.de (Subject: NPhysSO) While e-mail is preferred, applications may also be submitted in hardcopy to the following address: Dr. Fred Wolf Subject: NPhysSO Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) G?ttingen Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Bunsenstrasse 10 D - 37073 G?ttingen, Germany http://www.ds.mpg.de The MPIDS is an equal opportunity employer. From zhaoyanchang at hotmail.com Sun May 18 12:41:02 2008 From: zhaoyanchang at hotmail.com (Yanchang Zhao) Date: Mon May 19 10:32:38 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CFP - DDDM 2008, In conjunction with ICDM'08 Message-ID: ******************************************************************** Call for Papers - DDDM 2008 The 2nd International Workshop on Domain Driven Data Mining Pisa, Italy, December 15, 2008 In conjunction with IEEE ICDM'08 URL: http://datamining.it.uts.edu.au/dddm08/ ******************************************************************** The Second International Workshop on Domain Driven Data Mining (DDDM 2008) aims to provide a premier forum for sharing findings, knowledge, insight, experience and lessons in tackling potential challenges in discovering actionable knowledge from complex domain problems, promote the interaction of and fill the gap between data mining research and business expectations, and drive a paradigm shift from traditional data-centered hidden pattern mining to domain-driven actionable knowledge discovery. Submission Instructions ----------------------- Paper submissions should be limited to a maximum of 10 pages in the IEEE 2-column format, the same as the camera-ready format (see the IEEE Computer Society Press Proceedings Author Guidelines at http://www.computer.org/portal/pages/cscps/cps/final/icdm06.xml). All papers accepted for the workshop will be included in the ICDM'08 Workshop Proceedings published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. Selected papers from the workshop will be invited for consideration of publication in a planned special issue of IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (subject to approval from TKDE). Important dates --------------- August 1, 2008: Submission deadline September 15, 2008: Notification of paper acceptance to authors October 7, 2008: Deadline for camera-ready copies December 15, 2008: Workshop day Organizing Committee -------------------- General Chair Philip S. Yu, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA Program Chairs Yanchang Zhao, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Graham Williams, Australian Taxation Office, Australia Carlos Soares, University of Porto, Portugal Contact ------- Inquiries can be forwarded to dddm08@it.uts.edu.au. _________________________________________________________________ Search for local singles online @ Lavalife - Click here http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Flavalife9%2Eninemsn%2Ecom%2Eau%2Fclickthru%2Fclickthru%2Eact%3Fid%3Dninemsn%26context%3Dan99%26locale%3Den%5FAU%26a%3D30290&_t=764581033&_r=email_taglines_Search_OCT07&_m=EXT -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080518/0c6c34d6/attachment.html From auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch Sun May 18 16:51:45 2008 From: auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch (Auke Ijspeert) Date: Mon May 19 10:32:42 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] AMAM 2008, call for participation and WebCast Message-ID: <48304281.2050802@epfl.ch> Dear all, Please find below a message from Roy Ritzmann, the General Chair of AMAM 2008. Best regards Auke Ijspeert AMAM: Adaptive Motion in Animals and Machines June 1-6, 2008, Cleveland, OH, USA http://amam.case.edu The fourth meeting of Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2008) is about to happen at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. This conference occurs every 3 years and brings together engineers and biologists interested in movement for a one week conference. The date of the conference is June 1-6. We have put together an impressive list of speakers from both fields. There is still time to register to attend the meeting. Visit our web site at http://amam.case.edu/ for registration and information regarding the program and housing. If you cannot travel to attend the meeting for any reason, but would still like to hear the talks, we have another option. Assuming there is sufficient interest, we are planning to WebCast the meeting. For the modest cost of $150, which should defer our expenses, we will provide you with a PIN number that will allow you to access streaming video of the talks from the comfort of your own office or home. These files will be available for viewing for one year. Thus, if you are in a distant time zone or have other conflicts during that week, you do not have to view them in real time. The files will NOT be available for download, but you will be able to view them repeatedly during the 1 year archive period. If you would like to take advantage of this offer and join us, if only through cyberspace, visit our web site at http://amam.case.edu/. There you can register and purchase a PIN number. Roy Ritzmann, General Chair of AMAM 2008. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080518/a4a5cde9/attachment.html From longlifelee at gmail.com Mon May 19 01:14:34 2008 From: longlifelee at gmail.com (Soo-Young Lee) Date: Mon May 19 10:32:44 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Extended Deadline for IDEAL2008, Nov. 2-6, Daejeon, Korea Message-ID: (Apologies if you receive multiple copies.) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Extended deadline for paper submission : June 15, 2008 (Sunday) Proceedings will be published as a Springer LNCS. IDEAL 2008 9th International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning November 2-5, 2008, Daejeon, Korea www.ideal2008.org IDEAL is an annual conference dedicated to emerging and challenging topics in intelligent data analysis and engineering and their associated learning paradigms. After successful recent events in Birmingham (2007), Burgos (2006), Brisbane (2005), Exeter (2004), Hong Kong (2003), and Manchester (2002), IDEAL 2008 will be held at KAIST, Daejeon, at the geographical center of South Korea. IDEAL 2008 will provide a stimulating forum for presenting and discussing the latest theoretical advances and real-world applications in Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning. Topic and Goals We would like to continue the tradition of previous IDEALs with stimulating presentations and in-depth discussions on the latest theoretical advances and technology innovation for real-world applications in Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning. The main themes of the conference are (but are not limited to): -Learning and Information Processing Machine learning, Neural Networks, Emergent Systems, Probablistic Learning, Clustering & Classification, Feature Selection & Extraction, Information Fusion, Evolutionary Computation, Fuzzy Logic, Applications - Data Mining & Information Management Rule-based Systems, Content-based Retrieval Systems, Text & Web Mining, Multivariate Data Visualisation, Internet & Multimedia Databases, Knowledge Discovery & Retrieval, Data Warehouse and E-organisations, Image/Video Analysis and Retrieval, Speech & Signal Processing, Medical Diagnosis & Databases -Bioinformatics & Neuroinformatics Protein Structural Prediction, Gene Expression Data Analysis, Metabolomics & Pathway Analysis, Bioinformatics Tools & Intelligent Decision Making Systems, Molecular Data Management, Novel Bioinformatics Algorithms, Neuroinformatics, Bio-inspired Computing Models, Cognitive Learning & Memory, Brain-computer Interfaces -Agents & Distributed Systems Multi-agents Systems, Autonomous Agents, Agent Architectures & Protocols, Collaborative & Collective Learning, Self-Organising Systems, Reconfiguration Systems, Hybrid Systems & Applications, Fuzzy Neural Systems & Applications, Swarm Intelligence & Systems -Financial Engineering and Modelling Electronic Commerce, Portfolio Management, Risk Analysis & Management, Fraud Detection, Modelling & Forecasting, Volatility & Trading Strategies Important Dates June 15, 2008 Deadline for paper submission July 13, 2008 Acceptance notification August 10, 2008 Final paper uploading and Registration Dates Tutorial: November 2, 2008 (Sunday) Conference: November 3-5, 2008 (Monday-Wednesday) Organizers International Advisory Committee Lei Xu - Chinese University of Hong Kong (Chair) Yaser Abu-Mostafa - CALTECH, USA Shun-ichi Amari - RIKEN BSI, Japan Michael Dempster - University of Cambridge, UK Nick Jennings - University of Southampton, UK Erkki Oja - Helsinki University of Technology, Finland Latit M. Patnaik - Indian Institute of Science, India Burkhard Rost - Columbia University, USA Steering Committee Hujun Yin - University of Manchester, UK (Co-Chair) Laiwan Chan - Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong (Co-Chair) Nigel Allinson - University of Sheffield, UK Yiu-ming Cheung - Hong Kong Baptist University Marc van Hulle - K. U. Leuven, Belgium John Keane - University of Manchester, UK Jimmy Lee - Chinese University of Hong Kong Malik Magdon-Ismail - Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., USA Zheng Rong Yang - University of Exeter, UK Ning Zhong - Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan Honorary Conference Chair Shun-ichi Amari - RIKEN BSI, Japan Conference Co-Chairs Soo-Young Lee - KAIST, Korea Hujun Yin - University of Manchester, UK Program Committee Co-Chairs Colin Fyfe - University of Paisley, UK Dongsup Kim - KAIST, Korea Malik Magdon-Ismail - RPI, USA Organizing Committee Chair Kwang-Hyun Cho - KAIST, Korea Conference Venue The Conference venue is the CMS Building at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea. KAIST is located in Daedeok Science Town, the home to more than 60 government-supported and private research institutes, 4 universities, and numerous venture businesses. The Science Town is situated in the northern part of Daejeon, which has a population of over 1.3 million citizens. Academic Program The Conference will go on three full days, from November 3 (Monday) to 5 (Wednesday), 2008, with oral sessions with invited and contributed presentations, and poster sessions. Several special sessions will also be invited. Before the Conference, there will be tutorials on November 2, 2008 (Sunday), for younger researchers. Cultural Program There will be the Welcoming Reception in the evening of November 2, 2008 (Sunday), and Banquet in the evening of November 4, 2008 (Tuesday). Cultural tours may be organized to visit Kyungju city, the old capital of Shilla dynasty from BC to 9 century, and Puyeo, the old capital of Backje dynasty from BC to 5 century AD. The Bulkuksa temple at Kyungju is listed as a world heritage by UNESCO. Travel Information Citizens of many developed countries may visit Korea without visa as tourists. Daejeon city is located at the geographical center, and is reachable to all major cities in South Korea within 2 hours. Daejeon city is well connected to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, by express trains (KTC) in 53 minutes with about US$25 or express buses in 2 hours with US$15. The Cheongju International Airport is the closest international airport with only 40 minutes distance to Daejeon by car. However, the most convenient and main gateway of Korea is the Incheon (Seoul) Internaional Airport (ICN). There is an airport bus service running directly between the Incheon International Airport and Daejeon. Or, you may go to Seoul Train Station by buses, and take an express train (KTX) to Daejeon Station. Accommodation There are many hotels and motels within 10 minutes distance. The room rates vary between US$130 and US$50 per day per room for single or double occupancy. Conference Proceedings Accepted papers will be included in IDEAL'07 Proceedings, to be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. LNCS is listed in EI, ACM Portal, INSPEC, etc. -- Soo-Young Lee Director, Brain Science Research Center, KAIST From rjolivet at pharma.uzh.ch Mon May 19 18:13:54 2008 From: rjolivet at pharma.uzh.ch (Renaud Jolivet) Date: Wed May 21 11:13:29 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD position announcement // High resolution quantitative optical imaging of neurometabolic and neurovascular coupling mechanisms Message-ID: Apologies for cross-postings. Noninvasive functional neuroimaging tools are widely applied to study the human brain in action. However, the hemodynamic signals of the most extensively used methods are still not well understood. This joint EPFL and ETHZ PhD project aims at understanding the quantitative aspects of hemodynamic changes that occur in the brain. For this aim, novel multimodal high resolution optical imaging tools will be developed and applied in animal experiments. The thesis project (3 years) will consist of the following tasks 1. Development and validation of quantitative spectroscopic optical imaging (Lausanne). 2. In-vivo experiments in the rat and data analysis (Zurich). Applicants should have a strong interest and background in engineering and/or physics. Skills in animal experiments are not mandatory, however, the candidate must be open and interested in this part of the project. Please contact Prof. Bruno Weber (bweber@pharma.unizh.ch) or Prof. Christian Depeursinge (christian.depeursinge@epfl.ch). -- Dr Renaud Jolivet Roche Research Fellow University of Zurich Institute of Pharmacology & Toxicology University Hospital Z?rich Nuclear Medicine R?mistrasse 100 CH-8091 Z?rich Tel: +41 76 437 9798 rjolivet@pharma.uzh.ch http://www.pharma.uzh.ch/research/functionalimaging/members/jolivet.html From nips2008publicity at gmail.com Tue May 20 05:51:38 2008 From: nips2008publicity at gmail.com (Antonio Torralba) Date: Wed May 21 11:13:34 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] NIPS 2008 Call For Demonstrations Message-ID: CALL FOR DEMONSTRATIONS - NIPS 2008 Neural Information Processing Systems -- Natural and Synthetic NIPS 2008 Conference -- December 8 - 10, 2008 Hyatt Regency Vancouver, BC, CANADA http://nips.cc Demonstration Proposal Deadline: September 19, 2008 Real-world applications are the ultimate litmus test for intelligent algorithms. And live and interactive demos are the best way to convince people of the power of your ideas! The Neural Information Processing Systems Conference now provides a venue for showing your live and interactive demonstrations. It has a Demonstration Track that will run in parallel with the popular evening Poster sessions. Demonstrators will have a chance to show their live interactive demos, for example in areas such as hardware technology, software systems, neuromorphic and biologically-inspired systems and robotics. The only hard rules are that the demo must show novel technology and must be live and interactive! The full call for demonstrations is at the following URL: http://nips.cc/Conferences/2008/CallForDemos Ralf Herbrich (Microsoft Research) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080519/34225f0c/attachment.html From rjolivet at pharma.uzh.ch Thu May 22 10:20:06 2008 From: rjolivet at pharma.uzh.ch (Renaud Jolivet) Date: Thu May 22 11:05:39 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Open position for a MSc student :: Modeling the impact of astrocyte-neuron metabolic interactions on neural activity Message-ID: Apologies for cross postings. The group of Prof Bruno Weber (University of Zurich, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology) is looking for a talented and motivated Masters student for a computational neuroscience project aimed at understanding the energetic constraints of neuronal activity. The brain uses glucose as its primary energy substrate. Surprisingly however, neurons use lactate ? a glucose derivative ? rather than glucose has their main energy fuel. Lactate is being produced in astrocytes from blood-borne glucose and is then shuttled to neurons instantiating a metabolic connection between astrocytes and neurons. Since this mechanism was originally postulated in 1994, its existence has been the subject of a much heated controversy. We have recently demonstrated using mathematical analysis that this lactate shuttle does take place in vivo, is of significant importance and is regulated by the activity of excitatory neurons as originally postulated. This leaves open the question as to why brain energetic is organized in this fashion. This question is being addressed in the group at the moment using a combination of in vivo experiments and modeling. With this project, we wish to open a new line of research focusing on the role of this lactate shuttle in the regulation of neuronal activity, a mechanism recently described in vitro. The project will consist of developing, simulating and analyzing a network model containing different neuronal and astrocytic subpopulations. Energetic constraints and regulatory mechanisms will be integrated in the network by progressively increasing the complexity of astrocyte?neuron metabolic interactions. This project will make use of the newly developed Brian simulation tool (http://brian.di.ens.fr/) and will be run in collaboration with Dr Romain Brette at Ecole Normale Sup?rieure Paris who developed Brian. Requirements - Strong theoretical background (mathematics, physics or equivalent). - Knowledge of the Python programming language, MATLAB an asset. - Basic knowledge of biology and neuroscience. - Interested in combining theoretical tools with in vivo experiments to address key questions in neuroscience. - Fluent in English. Contact Please contact Dr Renaud Jolivet by e-mail at rjolivet@pharma.uzh.ch or by phone at +41 44 255 3632. Further information about the group can be found at http://www.pharma.uzh.ch/research/functionalimaging.html -- Dr Renaud Jolivet Roche Research Fellow University of Zurich Institute of Pharmacology & Toxicology University Hospital Z?rich Nuclear Medicine R?mistrasse 100 CH-8091 Z?rich Tel: +41 76 437 9798 rjolivet@pharma.uzh.ch http://www.pharma.uzh.ch/research/functionalimaging/members/jolivet.html From pprodrigues at liaad.up.pt Wed May 21 15:47:31 2008 From: pprodrigues at liaad.up.pt (Pedro Pereira Rodrigues) Date: Thu May 22 14:57:23 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] ACM SAC 2009 - Data Streams Track Call for Papers Message-ID: <483427F3.9040201@liaad.up.pt> *** Apologies for cross-posting *** ACM SAC-DS 2009 Call for Papers ACM Symposium on Applied Computing The 24nd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA March 8 - 12, 2009 Data Streams Track http://www.liaad.up.pt/~jgama/SAC09/ Call for Papers The rapid development in information science and technology in general and in growth complexity and volume of data in particular have introduced new challenges for the research community. Many sources produce data continuously. Examples include sensor networks, wireless networks, radio frequency identification (RFID), customer click streams, telephone records, multimedia data, scientific data, sets of retail chain transactions, etc. These sources are called data streams. A data stream is an ordered sequence of instances that can be read only once or a small number of times using limited computing and storage capabilities. These sources of data are characterized by being open-ended, flowing at high-speed, and generated by non stationary distributions. TOPICS OF INTEREST We are looking for all possible contributions related to algorithms on data streams. Topics include (but are not restricted) to: Data Stream Models Data Stream Management Systems Data Stream Query Languages Continuous queries and Summarization from Data Streams Sampling Data Streams Single-Pass Algorithms Scalable Algorithms Change Detection Algorithms Clustering on Data Streams Classification and Regression on Data Streams Association Rules on Data Streams Feature Selection on Data Streams Visualization Techniques for Data Streams Evaluation of Data Streams Models Data Stream applications Sensor Networks Real-Time Applications IMPORTANT DATES Aug 16, 2008: Submission of papers Oct 11, 2008: Notification of acceptance/rejection Oct 25, 2008: Camera-ready copies of accepted papers PAPER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Papers should be submitted in PDF using the SAC 2009 conference management system: http://www.acm.org/conferences/sac/sac2009/ The paper should omit authors and affiliations. Author names and addresses must not appear in the body of the paper, self-reference must be in the third person, attribution to the author(s) must be in the form of "author", and bibliographical entries by the author(s) must also be in the form of "author". The author(s) name(s) and address(es) must NOT appear in the body of the paper, and self-reference should be in the third person. This is to facilitate blind review. Only the title should be shown at the first page without the author's information. Each submitted paper will be fully refereed and undergo a blind review process by at least three referees. The conference proceedings will be published by ACM. Hence, all accepted papers should be submitted in ACM 2-column camera ready format for publication in the symposium proceedings. The maximum number of pages allowed for the final papers is 5 pages (about 4000 words), with the option (at additional expense) to add up to three (3) more pages. There is a set of templates to support the required paper format for a number of document preparation systems at http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html From auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch Thu May 22 14:51:59 2008 From: auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch (Auke Ijspeert) Date: Thu May 22 14:57:27 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] RSS2008 WS on locomotion control, June 28: Call for participation and poster-abstracts Message-ID: <48356C6F.1060906@epfl.ch> Control of locomotion: from animals to robots Workshop at the "Robotics: Science and Systems" Conference */RSS2008/* , Zurich, Switzerland, Saturday, June 28, 2008. *Organizers*: *Auke Ijspeert *(EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland), *Paolo Dario * (SSSA, Italy), and *Sten Grillner * (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) Workshop website: http://birg2.epfl.ch/rss2008/ *Description*: The goal of the workshop is to discuss how inspiration from the animal kingdom can help improving locomotion skills in robots, and how robots can be used as scientific tools in animal motor control. All aspects of locomotion will be considered including materials, actuators, sensors, control, and learning. In particular, the workshop aims at exploring how these different aspects can collectively be designed to improve the locomotor skills of future robots. We will discuss possible roads to tackle the challenges related to having robots get out of the labs and move in unstructured and partially unknown terrains. While robotics has clearly something to gain from biological inspiration, we will also discuss how robotics can give something back to biology, namely how robots can be used as scientific tools in animal motor control. For instance, how robots can be used to test hypotheses about neural circuits and/or biomechanical principles in invertebrate and vertebrate animals. *Topics*: Neuro-mechanical coupling, central pattern generators, compliant robots, passive and dynamic walkers, gait transitions, motor learning, swimming robots, crawling robots, walking robots, jumping robots, /etc/. *Format: *The workshop will have an interesting mix of biologists and roboticists as invited speakers (see list below) together with a poster session, whose participants will be selected after an open call for poster (see below). The workshop will be organized such as to provide ample time for discussions. We aim at a 75-25% ratio between presentations and discussions. We therefore suggest having each talk followed by a discussion, i.e. an alternation between talks and discussions. To guide the discussions, we will distribute beforehand a set of strategic questions (emails to speakers and participants + on this web page), and invite speakers and participants to exchange their thoughts about them. For more information, see the workshop website: http://birg2.epfl.ch/rss2008/ *Invited speakers:* ***Paolo Arena*, University of Catania, Italy* Holk** Cruse*, University of Bielefeld, Germany* Paolo Dario*, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy.* Robert Full*, UC Berkeley, USA. * Sten** Grillner*, The Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology, Karolinska Institute, Sweden. * Auke Ijspeert*, EPFL, Switzerland. * Hiroshi Kimura*, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan. * Roger Quinn*, Case Western Reserve University, USA. * Stefan Schaal*, University of Southern California, USA. * Andre Seyfarth*, University of Jena, Germany. *Call for posters* Researchers in animal and robot locomotion are invited to submit a *2-page abstract* for presenting a poster at the workshop. Accepted poster presenters will also have the opportunity to make a *2-min poster teaser* (i.e. a very short oral presentation) to advertise their poster. Please send your abstract to auke.ijspeert@epfl.ch before *June 14*. Feel free to send it before, since we will review abstracts as they come in and we might have to restrict the number of accepted posters due to space restrictions. *Registration *Participants will need to register to the RSS2008 conference, see http://www.roboticsconference.org/ and http://www.roboticsconference.org/registration.shtml Note that the early registration for RSS2008 with a 100 Swiss Francs discount ends on May 25 (i.e. very soon!). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080522/4f45afba/attachment-0001.html From netta at comp.leeds.ac.uk Thu May 22 14:52:14 2008 From: netta at comp.leeds.ac.uk (N Cohen) Date: Thu May 22 15:12:24 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoctoral fellowship in Leeds, UK Message-ID: Postdoctoral Fellowship (Full Time) Biosystems Group School of Computing University of Leeds Leeds, United Kingdom Modelling of complex biological networks ----------------------------------------- A postdoctoral fellowship is available immediately to work with Dr. Netta Cohen at the Biosystems Group, School of Computing in the University of Leeds for approximately two years. Research areas covered in the group include: Computational neuroscience Worm locomotion and neural control Gene regulation networks Stochastic dynamics in complex networks The Biosystems Group offers a unique environment in which a critical mass of modellers and experimentalists interact with each other and with other research groups in related fields, including mathematics, physics, computer science and machine learning, mechanical engineering/robotics and biological sciences. For further details of our research, please see: http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/biosystems We are seeking a candidate who can demonstrate excellence in research, a relevant track record in computational modelling for biological systems and strong interpersonal skills. You should be willing to work closely with collaborators modellers or experimentalists. All highly motivated candidates with a PhD in Physical, Mathematical or Computer sciences, or other relevant areas to the project are encouraged to apply. International applications are welcome. University Grade 7 (??28,290- ??33,780 p.a.) or University Grade 8 (??34,79 - ??41,545 p.a.) Exact period of contract is dependent on funding. Informal enquiries to Dr Netta Cohen, tel +44 (0)113 343 6789, email netta@comp.leeds.ac.uk To apply on line please visit jobs.leeds.ac.uk, click on research and follow the link to the Job Ref number below. Alternatively application packs are available from Ms Judi Drew, tel +44 (0)113 343 5432, email j.a.drew@leeds.ac.uk Job ref 312300 Closing date 13 June 2008 Applications received until 13 June 2008 are guaranteed full consideration. From smart at neuralcorrelate.com Fri May 23 02:29:23 2008 From: smart at neuralcorrelate.com (Susana Martinez-Conde) Date: Fri May 23 11:22:15 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] 2008 ILLUSION CONTEST WINNERS now posted Message-ID: <002801c8bc6c$0e596a90$2b0c3fb0$@com> 2008 ILLUSION CONTEST WINNERS The "Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest" Gala (May 11th, 2008, Naples FL, Philharmonic Center for the Arts) was a huge success, with more attendees than ever! This event was the fourth annual edition of the "Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest". Previous editions drew numerous accolades from attendees as well as international media coverage. The TOP THREE winners of the 2008 "Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest" are: - 1st PRIZE: Rob van Lier and Mark Vergeer (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) -- "Filling in the Afterimage after the Image" - 2nd prize: Rob Jenkins (University of Glasgow, UK)-- "Ghostly Gaze" - 3rd prize: Thomas Papathomas (Rutgers University, USA)--"Rolling Eyes on a Hollow Mask" The 2009 contest (5th annual edition!) will be hosted on May 10th, at 7pm (Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, Florida). Illusion submissions for the 2009 contest are now being accepted! Check out the WINNING ILLUSIONS, and all TOP TEN finalists at: http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com The winners took home a "Guido", a trophy designed by the renowned Italian sculptor Guido Moretti. If you took PICTURES or VIDEOS of the event, please send them to us and we will post the best ones!! This event was hosted by the Neural Correlate Society, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote public awareness of neuroscience research and discovery, and sponsored by the Mind Science Foundation. As the Platinum Sponsor of the "Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest", the Mind Science Foundation is featuring complimentary visual illusion eCards at www.mindscience.org/visualillusion. On behalf of the Neural Correlate Society, Susana Martinez-Conde (Executive Director and Illusion Contest Coordinator) Neural Correlate Society Executive Committee: Jose-Manuel Alonso, Stephen Macknik, Luis Martinez, Xoana Troncoso, Peter Tse ---------------------------------------------------------------- Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD Director, Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience Division of Neurobiology Barrow Neurological Institute 350 W. Thomas Rd Phoenix AZ 85013, USA Phone: +1 (602) 406-3484 Fax: +1 (602) 406-4172 Email: smart@neuralcorrelate.com http://www.neuralcorrelate.com/smc_lab/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080522/06b76b24/attachment.html From brandt at bcos.uni-freiburg.de Fri May 23 17:01:54 2008 From: brandt at bcos.uni-freiburg.de (Katrin Brandt) Date: Sat May 24 12:57:03 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Announcement - new funding initiative "Bernstein Focus: Neural basics of learning" Message-ID: <4836DC62.40203@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> Dear colleagues, we would like to point out that the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has tendered a new funding initiative "National Network Computational Neuroscience - Bernstein Focus: Neural basics of learning" and encourage you to submit your proposals. The BMBF has established the "National Network Computational Neuroscience" in Germany as a structure for developing a new quality in Computational Neuroscience, for networking this research area and for promoting its international visibility. With the new funding initiative "Bernstein Focus: Neural basics of learning" within this framework the BMBF aims to support activities for the further development and networking of experimental and theoretical neuroscientific as well as technological capacities in order to investigate the neural basics of learning. Funding for up to five years is provided for interdisciplinary cooperation projects which supply a substantial contribution to the investigation of brain algorithms, to the understanding of dynamics and plasticity of the neural processes of learning und their technical applications. Written project outlines must be submitted to the project management organization (PT-DLR) by 30 September 2009 at the latest. In a second step, applicants whose project outlines have received a positive evaluation will be invited to submit a formal application. For the complete announcement please visit: http://www.bmbf.de/foerderungen/12434.php -- Dr. Katrin Brandt Bernstein Coordination Site of the National Network for Computational Neuroscience Albert-Ludwigs-Universit?t Freiburg Hansastr. 9A 79104 Freiburg Germany phone: +49 761 203 9594 fax: +49 761 203 9585 e-mail: brandt@bcos.uni-freiburg.de homepage: www.nncn.de From boahen at stanford.edu Fri May 23 19:47:03 2008 From: boahen at stanford.edu (Kwabena Boahen) Date: Sat May 24 12:57:07 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Software Lead for Stanford's Neurogrid Project Message-ID: <48370317.4090300@stanford.edu> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080523/67fb224c/attachment-0001.html From elie at brown.edu Sat May 24 21:40:46 2008 From: elie at brown.edu (Elie Bienenstock) Date: Mon May 26 11:06:49 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Language and Neurons - Theoretical Approaches, Symposium at Bar-Ilan U., June 23-25, 2008 Message-ID: <48386F3E.8050405@brown.edu> SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCEMENT *********************************************************** Language and Neurons -Theoretical Approaches * *The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel June 23-25, 2008* *********************************************************** The aim of this symposium is to analyze hypothetical neural networks that can process and produce language, and that can be evaluated by criteria of both physiological and linguistic plausibility. The symposium will address a central question of neural processing: how can neural circuits model rule-based systems, implementing processes that involve hierarchical, partly recursive, composition of primitives. The symposium will consist of invited presentations, discussion sessions and open poster sessions. To register, submit a poster, or request further information please contact: Ms. Henia Gal (henia.gal@mail.biu.ac.il) Gonda Brain Research Center, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel Tel: + 972 3 531 7755 gondabrain.center@mail.biu.ac.il _ Confirmed Speakers:_ Abeles M., Bar-Ilan U., Israel Ben-Shachar M., Bar-Ilan U., Israel Bienenstock E., Brown U., USA Braitenberg V., Tuebingen, Germany Faust M., Bar-Ilan U., Israel Friedman N., Tel-Aviv U., Israel Lavidor, M., Bar-Ilan University von der Malsburg C., Frankfurt, Germany Pulvermueller F., MRC, Cambridge, England Rothstein S., Bar-Ilan University Shastri L., UC Berkeley, USA Smolensky P., Johns Hopkins U., USA Tishbi N., Hebrew U., Israel Treves A., SISSA, Italy Van der Velde F., Leiden U, The Netherlands _Organizing Committee:_ Abeles M., Bar-Ilan U., Israel Bienenstock E., Brown U. USA Rothstein S., Bar-Ilan University Posted by: Elie Bienenstock (elie@brown.edu) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080524/caef3bd2/attachment.html From elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org Sun May 25 18:18:59 2008 From: elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org (INCF - Elli Chatzopoulou) Date: Mon May 26 11:06:50 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Reminder: early-registration deadline for Neuroinformatics Congress Message-ID: <48399173.4070807@incf.org> Register by June 2nd and save $150 off the full registration price! Online registration: www.neuroinformatics2008.org The organizers of Neuroinformatics 2008 are inviting you and your research team to the 1st INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics: **Databasing and Modeling the Brain** Stockholm, Sweden -September 7-9, 2008 **Keynote Speakers:** ? Mark Ellisman ? Mitsuo Kawato ? Mary Kennedy ? Henry Markram ? Idan Segev ? David Van Essen **Workshops:** ? Future hardware challenges to scientific computing Erik de Schutter (chair), Gabriel Wittum, Marc-Oliver Gewaltig, John Shalf ? Neurogenomics meets bioinformatics meets neuroinformatics in database research Robert Williams (chair), Ed Lein, Seth Grant, Kristen Harris ? Extraction of structural and functional information from brain images Ulla Ruotsalainen (chair), Katrin Amunts, Alan Evans, Thomas Mrsic-Fl?gel ? Challenges and benefits of multichannel electrophysiology Andrzej Wrobel (chair), Gy?rgy Buzsaki, Miguel Nicolelis, Xiaoqin Wang **Special session:** ? Perspectives in funding research in neuroinformatics Kathie Olsen, Wolfgang Boch AND more than 100 posters, including a selection of live demonstrations. We kindly ask you to spread information about the congress to potentially interested colleagues and target groups. -- Elli Chatzopoulou, Ph.D. Scientific Information and Public Relations Officer International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Secretariat Karolinska Institutet Nobels v?g 15A SE-171 77 Stockholm Sweden Email: elli@incf.org Phone: +46 8 52487491 Mobile: +46 7 61487491 Fax: +46 8 52487194 URL: www.incf.org From 1c15501 at gmail.com Mon May 26 15:30:21 2008 From: 1c15501 at gmail.com (Raymond Chiong) Date: Mon May 26 15:46:12 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Call for Chapters - Nature-Inspired Optimisation, Springer SCI ***a friendly reminder*** Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Raymond Chiong Date: Thu, May 15, 2008 at 11:52 PM Subject: Call for Chapters - Nature-Inspired Optimisation, Springer SCI Dear Colleagues, We have received many good proposals during the first round of our call for chapters. In this second round, we would like to focus particularly on the following areas: (1) novel algorithms for optimisation (2) optimisation in planning, scheduling and timetabling problems (3) the use of artificial immune systems in optimisation If you are interested in this publication, please drop me a short reply at rchiong@swinburne.edu.my. Best wishes, Raymond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CALL FOR CHAPTERS ================== Proposals Submission Deadline: 31 MAY 2008 (flexible) Full Chapters Due: 15 JULY 2008 (strict deadline) Nature-Inspired Algorithms for Optimisation A volume edited by Raymond Chiong To be published by Springer-Verlag in the series Studies in Computational Intelligence (SCI) Book Objectives & Mission: Nature has always been a source of inspiration. In recent years, new concepts, techniques and computational applications stimulated by nature are being continually proposed and exploited to solve a wide range of optimisation problems in diverse fields. Various kinds of nature-inspired algorithms have been designed and applied, and many of them are producing high quality solutions to a variety of real-world applications and optimisation problems, including scheduling, manufacturing, logistics, space allocation, stock cutting, anomaly detection, engineering design, software testing, bioinformatics and data mining, etc. The success of these algorithms has led to competitive advantages and cost savings not only to the industry but also the society at large. The use of nature-inspired algorithms stands out to be promising due to the fact that many real-world problems have become increasingly complex. The size and complexity of the optimisation problems nowadays require the development of methods and solutions whose efficiency is measured by their ability to find acceptable results within a reasonable amount of time. Despite there is no guarantee of finding the optimal solution, approaches based on the influence of biology and life sciences such as evolutionary algorithms, neural networks, ant systems, swarm intelligence, artificial immune systems, and many others have been shown to be highly practical and provided state-of-the-art solutions to various optimisation problems. The aim of this book is to provide a central source of reference by collecting and disseminating the progressive body of knowledge on nature-inspired algorithms and their applications. The main focus will be the implementation of novel nature-inspired solutions for optimisation based on empirical studies. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Methods: -evolutionary algorithms -memetic algorithms -neural networks -artificial life -particle swarm optimisation -ant colony optimisation -artificial immune systems -membrane, molecular, cellular and DNA computing -tabu search, simulated annealing, etc -hybrid methods with metaheuristics, machine learning, game theory, mathematical programming, constraint programming, co-evolutionary learning, etc Applications: -evolutionary games -evolutionary economics -production, logistics and transportation -telecommunications and engineering design -planning, scheduling and timetabling -bioinformatics and data mining -grid computing and computer security -software testing and software self assembly -numerical and combinatorial optimisation -multi-objective optimisation, dynamic optimisation, problems with uncertainty, etc -integration of natural computing techniques in intelligent systems -optimisation strategies in robotics path planning, task allocation and coordination -optimisation and control of highly nonlinear, large scale or networked engineering -successful optimisations in the fields of business, science and engineering Submission Procedure: Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before May 31, 2008 a 1-2 page proposal to rchiong@swinburne.edu.my clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified in 2-3 weeks time about the status of their proposals. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by July 15, 2008. All submitted chapters will be reviewed by at least three reviewers. About the series Studies in Computational Intelligence: The series Studies in Computational Intelligence (SCI) publishes new developments and advances in the various areas of computational intelligence - quickly and with a high quality. The intent is to cover the theory, applications, and design methods of computational intelligence, as embedded in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics and life science, as well as the methodologies behind them. The series contains monographs, lecture notes and edited volumes in computational intelligence spanning the areas of neural networks, connectionist systems, genetic algorithms, evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence, cellular automata, self-organising systems, soft computing, fuzzy systems, and hybrid intelligent systems. Critical to both contributors and readers are the short publication time and world-wide distribution - this permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research results. Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically or by mail to: Raymond Chiong Head of Intelligent Informatics Research Group School of Computing & Design Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak Campus) State Complex, 93576 Kuching Sarawak, Malaysia Tel.: +60 82 416 353 ? Fax: +60 82 423 594 E-mail: rchiong@swinburne.edu.my -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080526/c47fd994/attachment-0001.html From edauce at gmail.com Mon May 26 22:08:51 2008 From: edauce at gmail.com (Emmanuel Dauce) Date: Tue May 27 11:32:46 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Final CfP : Second French Conference on Computational Neurosciences (Neurocomp'08) Message-ID: <205190660805261308g1d1064fagec83e46960151c0f@mail.gmail.com> Submission to NEUROCOMP'08 will be over in few days! The second French Conference on Computational Neurosciences will be held from October 08th to October 11th in Marseille (France) (see http://2008.neurocomp.fr). Computational Neuroscience is the study of the mechanisms governing the processing of information in the nervous system. This integrative, interdisciplinary approach needs the constructive input from various fields such as neuroscience, information science, statistical physics or robotics. Submit your paper in the form of a summary (4 pages maximum) in electronic format *before June 3, 2008* by using our submission server (see http://2008.neurocomp.fr). It is of course possible to submit in english, and remember that a vast majority of papers (and thus of talks and posters) are likely be in english. The scope of possible interventions is wide, ranging from realistic models to more integrative levels. Following the conference, a separate review process will take place to publish the most innovative papers in a special issue of J. Physiol., Paris. We encourage submissions from master students or undergraduates. It is possible for students to be exempt from fees, insofar as they submit a job as first author. Some scholarships will be awarded on the basis of the quality of the work submitted. Important dates: -Paper submission deadline : June 3rd, 2008. -Registration deadline : September 15th, 2008. - Conference : Octobre 8-11, 2008 Preliminary program - Main conference : Octobre 8-10, 2008 - Two workshop will take place on Saturday, October 11th: - ? Computational Vision ? organized by Pascal Mamassian and Pierre Kornprobst - ? Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) ? organized by Marc Maier and Thomas Brochier - A conference open to the public on Saturday, October 11th by Pr. Yves Fregnac Invited speakers : - Ad Aertsen (Freiburg, Allemagne) - Gustavo Deco (Barcelona, Espagne) - Gregor Sch?ner (Bochum, Allemagne) - Andrew B. Schwartz (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) Organizing committee : (neurocomp08-orga@risc.cnrs.fr) - Laurent Perrinet, INCM, Marseille, - Emmanuel Dauc?, ISM, Marseille, - Jo?lle Forestier, INCM, Marseille, - Alexa Riehle, INCM, Marseille - Guillaume Masson, INCM, Marseille - Jean-Luc Blanc, LNIA, Marseille - Bruno Torresani, LATP, CMI, Marseille - Viktor Jirsa, ISM, Marseille Program Chair : - Fr?d?ric Alexandre, DR INRIA, Nancy, Inria, projet Cortex, - Nicolas Brunel, DR CNRS, Paris, Laboratoire de Neurophysique et Physiologie, - Emmanuel Dauc?, MdC, Marseille, UMR 6152 Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, - Alain Destexhe, DR CNRS, Unit? de Neurosciences Int?gratives et Computationnelles, - Jacques Droulez, DR CNRS, Paris, Coll?ge de France Laboratoire de Physiologie de la Perception et de l'action, - Olivier Faugeras, DR INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, Projet Odyss?e, - Yves Fr?gnac, DR CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, Unit? de Neurosciences Int?gratives et Computationnelle, - Line Garnero, DR CNRS, CNRS UPR 640, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Imagerie C?r?brale, - R?mi Gervais, Professeur, Lyon 1, Laboratoire Neurosciences Sensorielles Comportement Cognition, UMR 5020, - Marc Maier, Professeur,UMR 742, Inserm/UPMC Action Neuroimage Mod?lisation, - Pascal Mamassian, DR CNRS, FRE 2929, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, - Guillaume Masson, DR CNRS, CNRS, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la M?diterran?e, - H?l?ne Paugam-Moisy, Professeur, Lyon 2, LIRIS, UMR 5201, Mod?lisation et d?couverte de connaissances, - Jean-Baptiste Poline, chercheur, CEA, D?partement de Recherche M?dicale - CEA - DSV, Service Hospitalier Fr?d?ric Joliot, - Mathias Quoy, Professeur, Cergy-Pontoise, ENSEA-UCP, UMR 8051 Traitement des Images et du Signal, - Manuel Samuelides, Professeur, Toulouse, ONERA/DTIM, Mod?les Math?matiques, Statistiques et Num?riques, - Simon Thorpe, DR CNRS, Toulouse, CERCO-UMR 5549, Centre de recherche "Cerveau et Cognition", - Thierry Vi?ville, DR INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, Projet Odyss?e, - Sylvie Renaud, Professeur, Bordeaux, IMS Please contact us (e-mail neurocomp08@risc.cnrs.fr ) for any further request. -- -- Emmanuel Dauc? Centrale Marseille/UMR 6233 +33 491 05 47 30 / +33 491 17 22 88 http://emmanuel.dauce.free.fr -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080526/26fb9035/attachment.html From mr287 at georgetown.edu Tue May 27 01:32:22 2008 From: mr287 at georgetown.edu (Maximilian Riesenhuber) Date: Tue May 27 11:32:51 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoctoral Position: Computational neuroscience, neural data analysis, augmented cognition Message-ID: <483B4886.50005@georgetown.edu> Riesenhuber Lab Department of Neuroscience Georgetown University Washington, DC We have an opening for a postdoctoral fellow, starting immediately, to participate in a research project studying the neural mechanisms underlying "fast" object recognition using single-trial analysis of high-density EEG data, as part of a larger collaborative project aiming to develop a real-time neurally-based target detection system combining machine and biological vision. The candidate is expected to take on a main role in the analysis of the acquired EEG data and their integration in our computational model of object recogntion in cortex, which in turn will influence experimental design, with the goal of exploring ways to maximally utilize the brain's perceptual processing bandwidth. A strong quantitative background and experience in neural data analysis are required. Experience with EEG and psychophysics is a strong plus, as is training in biological and/or machine vision. Experience with Mac OS X, MATLAB, and C++ preferred. This position is also of interest for PhDs in computer science or engineering with an interest in moving into computational neuroscience. The position is for one year, with the option to renew for two additional years, given satisfactory performance and available funding. Salary is competitive. Candidates need to be US citizens or permanent residents. The project is a collaboration between several companies and universities. Our lab investigates the computational mechanisms underlying human object recognition as a gateway to understanding information processing and learning in cortex. In our work, we combine computational modeling with psychophysical, fMRI and EEG data from our own lab and collaborators, as well as with single unit data obtained in collaboration with physiology labs. For more information, see http://maxlab.neuro.georgetown.edu. Georgetown University has a vibrant neuroscience community with over forty labs participating in the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience. Its Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging (of which our lab is a member) features a recently upgraded research-dedicated 3T scanner and several EEG and NIRS recording systems. Georgetown's scenic campus is located at the edge of Washington, DC, one of the most intellectual and culturally rich cities in the country. Interested candidates should send a CV, a brief (1 page) statement of research interests, representative reprints, and the names and contact information of three references by email to Maximilian Riesenhuber (mr287@georgetown.edu). Review of applications will begin immediately, and will continue until the position is filled. Informal inquiries are welcome. --MAX ********************************************************************** Maximilian Riesenhuber phone: 202-687-9198 Department of Neuroscience fax: 202-784-3562 Georgetown University Medical Center email: mr287@georgetown.edu Research Building Room WP-12 3970 Reservoir Rd., NW Washington, DC 20007 http://maxlab.neuro.georgetown.edu ********************************************************************** From Randy.OReilly at colorado.edu Tue May 27 09:18:51 2008 From: Randy.OReilly at colorado.edu (Randall C. O'Reilly) Date: Tue May 27 11:32:56 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoc on PFC/BG/Cognitive Control Message-ID: <200805270118.51518.Randy.OReilly@colorado.edu> A postdoctoral position is available starting June 1, 2008, for research on computational models of the neural basis of higher level cognitive function, working in collaboration with Randall O'Reilly (CU Boulder), John Anderson and Christian Lebiere (CMU). We have funding to explore how the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia can support higher levels of cognitive function ("executive control"), leveraging the convergent approaches of the ACT-R computational modeling framework on the more abstract and computationally powerful end of the spectrum, and more biologically-detailed models using the Leabra modeling framework. The ideal candidate would have familiarity with these computational modeling frameworks, and expertise in one of them, as well as knowledge of the relevant cognitive neuroscience literature on executive function in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. The primary research will be computational, so extensive computational modeling expertise is required, as is a PhD in a relevant discipline. Interested individuals should send a curriculum vitae, representative publications, a statement of research interests, and three letters of reference via email to Randy.OReilly@colorado.edu. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, continuing until the position is filled. The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to providing a safe and productive learning and living community. To achieve that goal, we conduct background investigations for all final applicants being considered for employment. The University of Colorado is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment. - Randy From elakkat at mail.nih.gov Tue May 27 16:42:54 2008 From: elakkat at mail.nih.gov (Elakkat Dharmaraj Gireesh) Date: Wed May 28 11:50:54 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Nested theta- and beta/gamma-oscillations and neuronal avalanches Message-ID: Hi Let me introduce you our recent paper on the nested theta- and beta/gamma-oscillations and neuronal avalanches. Please take a look if you are interested. http://www.pnas. org/cgi/reprint/0800537105v1 1: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 May 22. Neuronal avalanches organize as nested theta- and beta/gamma-oscillations during development of cortical layer 2/3. Gireesh ED, Plenz D. Laboratory of Systems Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892. Maturation of the cerebral cortex involves the spontaneous emergence of distinct patterns of neuronal synchronization, which regulate neuronal differentiation, synapse formation, and serve as a substrate for information processing. The intrinsic activity patterns that characterize the maturation of cortical layer 2/3 are poorly understood. By using microelectrode array recordings in vivo and in vitro, we show that this development is marked by the emergence of nested - and beta/gamma-oscillations that require NMDA- and GABA(A)-mediated synaptic transmission. The oscillations organized as neuronal avalanches, i.e., they were synchronized across cortical sites forming diverse and millisecond-precise spatiotemporal patterns that distributed in sizes according to a power law with a slope of -1.5. The correspondence between nested oscillations and neuronal avalanches required activation of the dopamine D(1) receptor. We suggest that the repetitive formation of neuronal avalanches provides an intrinsic template for the selective linking of external inputs to developing superficial layers. Best regards Elakkat D. Gireesh Section on Critical Brain Dynamics NIMH, NIH Ph: 301-451-2868; 301-661-4532 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080527/15bec7d6/attachment-0001.html From tbosse at few.vu.nl Tue May 27 22:43:48 2008 From: tbosse at few.vu.nl (Tibor Bosse) Date: Wed May 28 11:50:58 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CfP: 2nd Int Workshop on Human Aspects in Ambient Intelligence Message-ID: [Apologies for multiple copies] SECOND INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON HUMAN ASPECTS IN AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE: Agent Technology, Human-Oriented Knowledge and Applications (HAI'08) URL: http://www.few.vu.nl/~treur/HAI08wsCfP.htm Sydney, Australia, December 9, 2008 (Financial support for travelling is available, see below) Workshop at the International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT'08) Call for Papers Background Recent developments within Ambient Intelligence and Agent Technology provide new possibilities to contribute to personal care. For example, an intelligent ambient agent in our car may monitor us and warn us when we are falling asleep while driving or take measures when we are too drunk to drive. As another example, an elderly person may wear a device with an ambient agent that monitors his or her wellbeing and generates an action when a dangerous situation is noticed. Such Ambient Intelligence applications can be based on the one hand on possibilities to acquire sensor information about humans and their functioning, but on the other hand, more knowledgeable applications crucially depend on the availability of adequate knowledge for analysis of such information about human functioning. If such knowledge about human functioning is computationally available in intelligent software/hardware devices in the environment, such ambient agents can show more human-like understanding and contribute to personal care based on this understanding. In recent years, scientific areas focusing on human functioning such as cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience and biomedical sciences have made substantial progress in providing an increased insight in the various physical and mental aspects of human functioning. Although much work still remains to be done, models have been developed for a variety of such aspects and the way in which humans (try to) manage or regulate them. From a more biomedical angle, examples of such aspects are (management of) heart functioning, diabetes, eating regulation disorders, and HIV-infection. From a more psychological and social angle, examples are emotion regulation, attention regulation, addiction management, trust management, stress management, and criminal behaviour management. If models of human processes and their management are represented in a formal and computational format, and incorporated in the human environment monitoring the physical and mental state of the human, then such ambient agents are able to perform a more in-depth analysis of the human?s functioning. An ambience is created that has a human-like understanding of humans, based on computationally formalised knowledge from the human-directed disciplines, and that may more effectively affect the state of humans by undertaking in a knowledgeable manner actions that improve their wellbeing and performance. This may concern elderly people and patients, but also humans in highly demanding circumstances or tasks. For example, the workspaces of naval officers may include systems that, among others, track their eye movements and characteristics of incoming stimuli (e.g., airplanes on a radar screen), and use this information in a computational model that is able to estimate where their attention is focussed at. When it turns out that an officer neglects parts of a radar screen, such a system can either indicate this to the person, or arrange on the background that another person or computer system takes care of this neglected part. Aims This workshop series addresses multidisciplinary aspects of Ambient Intelligence and Agent Systems with human-directed disciplines such as psychology, social science, neuroscience and biomedical sciences. The first workshop in the series (HAI'07) took place at the European Conference on Ambient Intelligence (AmI'07), in Darmstadt, Germany, November 2007. The aim of the workshops is to get researchers together from these human-directed disciplines or working on cross connections of Ambient Intelligence with these disciplines. The focus is on the use of knowledge from these disciplines in Ambient Intelligence applications, in order to take care of and support in a knowledgeable manner humans in their daily living in medical, psychological and social respects. The workshop can play an important role, for example, to get modellers in the psychological, neurological, social or biomedical disciplines interested in Ambient Intelligence as a high-potential application area for their models, and, for example, get inspiration for problem areas to be addressed for further developments in their disciplines. From the other side, the workshop may make researchers in Ambient Intelligence, Agent Systems, and Artificial Intelligence more aware of the possibilities to incorporate more substantial knowledge from the psychological, neurological, social and biomedical disciplines in Ambient Intelligence applications. As part of the interaction, specifications may be generated for experiments to be addressed by the human-directed sciences. Some of the areas of interest * human-aware computing * computational modelling of cognitive, neurological, social and biomedical processes for Ambient Intelligence * modelling emotion and mood and their regulation * collecting and analysing histories of behaviour * computational modelling of mindreading, theory of mind * building profiles; user modelling in Ambient Intelligence * sensoring; e.g., tracking physiological states, gaze, body movements, gestures * sensor information integration methods * analysis of sensor information; e.g., voice and skin analysis with respect to emotional states, gesture analysis, heart rate analysis * environmental modelling * situational awareness * model-based reasoning and analysis techniques for Ambient Intelligence * responsive and adaptive systems; machine learning * cognitive agent models * reflective ambient agent architectures * multi-agent system architectures for Ambient Intelligence applications * human interaction with devices * wearable devices for ambient health and wellness monitoring * brain-computer interfacing * analysis and design of applications to care for humans in need of support for physical and mental health; e.g., elderly or psychiatric care, surveillance, penitentiary care, humans in need of strucural medical or psychological care, support for psychotherapeutical/self-help communities * analysis and design of applications to support humans in demanding circumstances and tasks, such as warfare officers, air traffic controllers, crisis and disaster managers, humans in space missions. * evaluation studies * handling aspects of privacy and security; philosophical and ethical aspects Submission and Proceedings Papers can be submitted in the IEEE 2-column format (see the IEEE Computer Society Press Proceedings Author Guidelines, as for the IAT'08 conference). Expected length is from 3 pages (short papers) to 7 pages (regular papers). Double submission is allowed (for example, for papers submitted to the main conference IAT'08), but inclusion in the proceedings requires that the paper was and is not published elsewhere. The workshop proceedings will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press and will be available at the workshop. More submission details will follow at the workshop's Website: http://www.few.vu.nl/~treur/HAI08wsCfP.htm Financial Support for Travelling For those presenters at the workshop for whom excessive travelling costs may cause problems, financial support is available. This support may take the form that for a flight ticket above 400 euro, maximally 75% of the total costs of the ticket can be refunded by the workshop organisation (assuming a ticket of reasonable price for the given distance). After acceptance of a paper, this support can be requested for one author of the paper. Registration For every accepted paper at least one author has to register for the WI / IAT-2008 conference. There is no separate workshop registration fee (i.e., only one conference registration covers everything). Important Dates Submission deadline July 30, 2008 Notification September 3, 2008 Camera ready papers September 30, 2008 Workshop December 9, 2008 Coordination Commitee Juan Carlos Augusto (University of Ulster, School of Computing and Mathematics) Tibor Bosse (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Agent Systems Research Group) Cristiano Castelfranchi (CNR Rome, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies) Diane Cook (Washington State University, USA) Mark Neerincx (TNO Human Factors; Technical University Delft, Man-Machine Interaction) Fariba Sadri (Imperial College, Department of Computing) Jan Treur (contact person, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Agent Systems Research Group) Programme Committee Juan Carlos Augusto (University of Ulster, School of Computing and Mathematics) Marc B?hlen (State University of New York, USA) Tibor Bosse (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Agent Systems Research Group) Antonio Camurri (University of Genoa, InfoMus Lab) Cristiano Castelfranchi (CNR Rome, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies) Diane Cook (Washington State University, USA) Hao-Hua Chu (National Taiwan University, Ubicomp Lab, Taiwan) Rino Falcone (CNR Rome, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies) Dirk Heylen (University of Twente, Human Media Interaction) Anthony Jameson (DFKI, Human-Computer Interaction) Judy Kay (University of Sydney, Computer Human Adaptive Interaction, Australia) Peter Leijdekkers (University of Technology Sydney, Mobile Ubiquitous Services & Technologies Group, Australia) Paul Lukowicz (Austrian University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology) Silvia Miksch (Danube University Krems, Department of Information and Knowledge Engineering) Jose del Millan (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne EPFL, Research Institute IDIAP, Martigny, Switzerland) Neelam Naikar (Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Centre for Cognitive Work and Safety Analysis, Australia) Tatsuo Nakajima (Waseda University, Distributed and Ubiquitous Computing Lab, Japan) Mark Neerincx (TNO Human Factors; Technical University Delft, Man-Machine Interaction) Toyoaki Nishida (Kyoto University, Department of Intelligence Science and Technology, Japan) Maja Pantic (University of Twente, Human Media Interaction; Imperial College, Department of Computing, Netherlands/UK) Steffen Pauws (Philips Research Europe, Media Interaction Department, Netherlands) Christian Peter (Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Rostock, Human-Centered Interaction Technologies, Germany) Tomasz M. Rutkowski (RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Laboratory for Advanced Brain Signal Processing, Japan) Fariba Sadri (Imperial College, Department of Computing) Maarten Sierhuis (NASA Ames Research Center, Human-Centered Computing, USA) Elizabeth Sklar (City University of New York, Brooklyn College, Dept of Computer and Information Science) Ron Sun (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cognitive Science Department) Bruce H. Thomas (University of South Australia Mawson Lakes, Wearable Computer Lab, Australia) Jan Treur (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Agent Systems Research Group) From gabbiani at bcm.edu Wed May 28 15:56:15 2008 From: gabbiani at bcm.edu (Fabrizio Gabbiani) Date: Wed May 28 17:05:43 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] postdoc position: insect neurophysiology and aerodynamics Message-ID: <483D647F.70209@bcm.edu> A postdoctoral position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Fabrizio Gabbiani at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The lab studies mechanisms of visually guided collision avoidance at the cellular, systems, and computational level using a variety of techniques (intra-/extra- cellular recordings, calcium imaging, pharmacology, behavior using high-speed video, compartmental modeling). The goal of the current project is to investigate how flight control and collision avoidance maneuvers are generated in freely flying animals. The postdoctoral fellow will have access to state-of-the art facilities for his/her project, and will be part of an international team based in the US and Europe. Further information about the lab can be found on our web site (http://glab.bcm.tmc.edu) and about the project by contacting Dr. Gabbiani (see below). Applicants should have a strong work ethic, a theoretical/computational background and/or experience with electrophysiology from a neuroethological perspective. Please send CV, statement of interests and the email addresses of at least two referees to Dr. Fabrizio Gabbiani (gabbiani@bcm.edu). -- Fabrizio Gabbiani phone: (713) 798 1849 Department of Neuroscience fax: (713) 798 3946 Baylor College of Medicine email: gabbiani@bcm.edu One Baylor Plaza, web: glab.bcm.tmc.edu Houston, TX 77030 From mail at jan-peters.net Thu May 29 09:42:57 2008 From: mail at jan-peters.net (Jan Peters) Date: Thu May 29 10:13:04 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Robot Learning Message-ID: <6783EB45-0A7D-44F0-97CF-BC80FB60E293@jan-peters.net> =========================================================== Call for Participation IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Robot Learning =========================================================== To foster the development of learning robots, we are pleased to announce the formation of the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Robot Learning. We invite people interested in participating in this technical committee to contact the corresponding chair, Nicholas Roy, at nickroy@mit.edu, or one of the other chairs. There is an increasing interest in machine learning and statistics within the robotics community. At the same time, there has been a growth in the learning community in using robots as motivating applications for new algorithms and formalisms. Considerable evidence of this exists in the use of learning in high-profile competitions such as RoboCup and the DARPA Challenges, and the growing number of research programs funded by governments around the world. Additionally, the volume of research is increasing, as shown by the number of learning papers accepted to IROS and ICRA, and the corresponding number of learning sessions. The primary vision of our technical committee is as a focus for widely distributing technically rigorous results in shared areas of interest. Without being exclusive, areas of shared research interest include * learning models of robots, task or environments; * learning deep hierarchies or levels of representations from sensor & motor representations to task abstractions; * learning of plans and control policies by imitation and reinforcement learning; * integrating learning with control architectures; * methods for probabilistic inference from multi-modal sensory information (e.g., proprioceptive, tactile, vison); * structured spatio-temporal representations designed for robot learning such as low-dimensional embedding of movements. Our activities will include regular meetings at the primary robotics conferences, including a workshop series beginning at IROS 2008. See http://www.learning-robots.de for more information. Jun Morimoto, ATR Jan Peters, Max Planck Institute Nicholas Roy, MIT (Corresponding chair) Russ Tedrake, MIT From russt at mit.edu Wed May 28 21:50:55 2008 From: russt at mit.edu (Russ Tedrake) Date: Thu May 29 10:49:14 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] IEEE RAS Workshop on Robot Learning In-Reply-To: <4B499AB5-C1E7-4880-9BBE-713BABB9AFE8@jan-peters.net> References: <6A59B869-660F-4293-BC2C-C230F6D9E785@jan-peters.net> <67C59DBC-B611-4EF6-A8C3-05885A16D544@mit.edu> <483CC76A.1060209@mit.edu> <483CC919.50402@mit.edu> <67C0C59A-A133-41C3-968F-7015D78FB1D3@mit.edu> <483CCAF4.2060007@mit.edu> <1211956741.3784@hedberg2.cns.atr.jp> <483D9B3E.8010001@mit.edu> <4B499AB5-C1E7-4880-9BBE-713BABB9AFE8@jan-peters.net> Message-ID: =========================================================== Call for Participation IEEE RAS Workshop on Robot Learning =========================================================== We are soliciting papers in the second Workshop on Robotics Challenges for Machine Learning, to occur on September 22nd, 2008, at IROS 2008 in Nice, France (http://www.learning-robots.de/TC/ IROS2008). Contributions are sought in the following areas: * learning models of robots, tasks or environments * learning plans and control policies by imitation and reinforcement learning * representations which facilitate learning, such as low-dimensional embeddings of movements * learning representations and task abstractions by unsupervised learning * probabilistic inference of task parameters from multi-modal sensory information * integration of learning into control architectures. This workshop will also serve to kick-off the new IEEE Technical Committee (TC) on Robot Learning. Contributions to the workshop are solicited in the form of poster presentations. In order to present a poster at the workshop, please send a 1 page abstract including a title, list of authors and affiliations, and brief description of the work (challenge, problem formulation, or solution technique) to chairs@learning-robots.de. The intended audience is robotics researchers who are actively engaged in machine learning research, or who are interested in exploring machine learning ideas in their future work. We would specifically like to encourage students to participate. Important Dates: * July 21 - Abstract Submission Deadline * July 28 - Notification of Acceptance * September 22 - Workshop at IROS. See http://www.learning-robots.de/TC/IROS2008 for more information. From alexandru.floares at gmail.com Thu May 29 11:26:08 2008 From: alexandru.floares at gmail.com (Alexandru Floares) Date: Thu May 29 11:56:49 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CFP ISMDS08 Message-ID: Call for Papers and Participation Special Session on *Intelligent Systems for Medical Decisions Support ( ISMDS08 ), *at the** FIFTH INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE METHODS FOR BIOINFORMATICS AND BIOSTATISTICS, CIBB 2008, http://cibb08.disi.unige.it/, 3-4 October, 2008, Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy. *Description and Scope * Medicine and its scientific and technological background are rapidly and profoundly changing in the Information Age. The impact on the biomedical equipment used to produce and collect laboratory data, signals and images is impressive. New high throughput technologies have appeared and existing technologies have been radically transformed. For example, techniques like electroencephalography or radiography, which two decades ago seemed to reach a bottleneck, came to a new life and their importance as diagnostic tools is continuously increasing. As a result, our capacity to produce and record huge amount of complex biomedical data - patient conditions, diagnostic tests, treatments, outcomes, different kind of "omics" data (genomics/proteomics, etc), biosignals and images ? have dramatically increased. This data provides an unprecedented source of information that can lead to potential improvements in medical diagnostic, prognostic, and individualized, optimized treatment strategy. However, much more work is required. Although technology has brought about tremendous new sources of important biomedical data, we have not moved very far with regard to extracting the knowledge that lies latent in this data. In recent years, modern computer science has brought forth tremendous new tools such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary computing, support vector machines, and the like. Yet the professional, political and social issues that separate the medical community and the intelligent computing community have delayed the serious application of these tools to accelerate progress in translational medicine; genome to phenome, bench to bedside and clinical trials to public health. *Topics* We encourage papers describing new or applying existing intelligent computing methods to real and practical medical and health-care problems in which the biomedical problems are central. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to: ? disease modeling, diagnosis and prevention ? prognostic and treatment outcome predictions ? patient monitoring and alarm systems ? optimization of patient-management workflows ? biomedical data\text\web mining* *and data visualization ? integration of biomedical data sources and domain knowledge ? translational bioinformatics (genomics, proteomics, etc.) ? biomedical signals and images processing ? design of clinical trials Submissions addressing theoretical problems should clearly outline the expected impact of the proposed solution to the medical field. *Audience * * * - Medical informaticians - Bioinformaticians - Neuroinformaticians - Computer scientists - Statisticians - Molecular biologists and medical doctors - Biomedical and electrical engineers - Other researchers and developers *Important Dates* * * Paper submission deadline: 15 June 2008 Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2008 Final papers due: 1 September 2008 Conference: 3-4 October 2008 *Submissions* * * Authors are requested to abide by the following instructions in preparing their manuscripts: Prepare your paper in LATEX following the guidelines downloadable at http://cibb08.disi.unige.it/cibb.tgz. The size of the paper should not exceed 10 pages in this format. ? When your paper is ready, submit it in PDF format by uploading to this *link*. The deadline for up-loading the manuscript is June 15th, 2008. Please compile carefully the electronic form stating 1. Paper title, 2. Keyword(s), 3. Authors names and affiliations, 4. Contact Author's name and contact details including telephone/fax numbers and e-mail address, and 5. Abstract (200 words). The papers will be peer-reviewed and the authors will be notified via email of the results of the review by June 30th, 2008. Submission implies the willingness of at least one author per paper to register and present the paper at the conference. Accepted papers will be published in the compact disk of conference proceedings. A selection of papers presented at CIBB 2008 will be published as a post conference volume of Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics LNBI/LNCS series of Springer Verlag http://www.springer.com/series/5381 *Session Chairs* * * *Alexandru Floares, *SAIA - Solutions of Artificial Intelligence Applications & Artificial Intelligence Department, Oncological Institute Cluj-Napoca, Transilvania, Romania Email: alexandru.floaresieee.org * * *Jim DeLeo, *Scientific Computing Section, Department of Clinical Research Informatics, NIH Clinical Center & NIH Biomedical Computing Interest Group, Email: jdeleo nih.gov * * -- Alexandru Floares, MD, PhD Head of Artificial Intelligence Department Oncological Institute Cluj-Napoca 400015 Str. Republicii, Nr. 34-36, Cluj-Napoca, Transilvania, Romania President of SAIA - Solutions of Artificial Intelligence Applications 400310 Str. Al. Vlahuta, Bl. Lama C, Ap. 45, Cluj-Napoca, Transilvania, Romania Email: Alexandru.Floares@gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080529/b237aee3/attachment-0001.html From bezer at upatras.gr Thu May 29 15:24:41 2008 From: bezer at upatras.gr (Tasos Bezerianos) Date: Sat May 31 15:13:09 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Last call Message-ID: <947423FBF9E74BECA3F334FC2444421B@acer> 4th International Summer School on Emerging Technologies in Biomedicine "Advanced Methods For The Estimation Of Human Brain Activity And Connectivity, Applications to Rehabilitation Engineering" June 29th-July 4th 2008, Patras, Greece LAST ANNOUNCEMENT Dear Colleagues, This is the last call about the forthcoming 4th International Summer School on Emerging Technologies in Biomedicine. The early registration phase ended successfully; seventy applications from twenty countries and three continents were received. After evaluation of the applicants CVs 48 were selected for a COST Action NeuroMath grant while 12 from the reserved list were selected to receive another grant from the Organizers' public sponsors. >From now until the start of the Summer School only regular registration for both students and others will be accepted. Because of the limited number of places left we will keep strictly the priority; First Input First Served. The Summer School faculty consists of eminent and many famous as well as new dynamic and promising scientists around the world from both academia and industry. They will come from the next countries: Greece (2), Italy (3), United Kingdom (1), Germany (3), Poland (1), China (1), Austria (1), USA (3) and Spain (2). Next few words about the program motivation. Targeting the intellectual communication of students with faculty every afternoon we will have "Dinner with the experts". There the students and faculty of the summer school with a glass of wine at hands will discuss informally about the next steps in Computer Brain Communications, the opportunities for post doc research and placements in related industrial sectors, while the rookies will have the opportunity to explore possible places for their PhD studies. The program schedule , the application forms as well as practical information about transportation are available in the Summer School website at http://heart.med.upatras.gr/chool2008. I am looking forward to seeing all of you in Patras, Warm regards, A. Bezerianos, Chairman Professor Anastasios Bezerianos, BS, MS, PhD Biosignal Processing Lab ( http://biosignal.med.upatras.gr) Dept. of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, University of Patras, GR 26500 PATRAS Phones:+30-2610969145, Lab.: +30-2610969147 fax:+30-2610992496 4th International Summer School on Emerging Technologies in Biomedicine, Patras 29/06- 04/07/08, http://heart.med.upatras.gr/school2008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080529/8d7aaccf/attachment-0001.html From Ranu.Jung at asu.edu Thu May 29 18:43:30 2008 From: Ranu.Jung at asu.edu (Ranu Jung) Date: Sat May 31 15:13:31 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Registration for Seventeenth Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting CNS*2008 Message-ID: CALL FOR REGISTRATION, CNS*2008 EARLY REGISTRATION ENDS JUNE 1 Seventeenth Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting CNS*2008 July 19 - July 24, 2008 Portland, Oregon http://www.cnsorg.org CNS*2008 will be held in Portland, Oregon July 19-24, 2008. A welcome reception will be held on the evening of July 19th and the scientific program will start Sunday, July 20th in the morning. The main meeting will take place July 20-22 in downtown Portland at The Benson Hotel, currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a Portland landmark. The main meeting will be followed by two days of workshops, July 23-24 at the OHSU Center for Health and Healing, at the foot of the Aerial tram to OHSU. The meeting banquet will be held July 21. Submission of abstracts for review is now closed. The talks and posters at the meeting will present research that includes experimental, model-based, as well as more abstract theoretical approaches to understanding neurobiological computation. Also presented will be new technical approaches to theoretical and experimental issues in computational neuroscience or relevant software packages. This year we are having Invited Talks related to Systems Biology and Molecular Level Modeling in Neuroscience. INVITED SPEAKERS: Upinder Bhalla (National Centre for Biological Sciences, India) Kim (Avrama) Blackwell (George Mason University) Victor Derkach (Oregon Health Science University) Aki Kusumi (Kyoto University) John Rinzel (New York University) CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS: We are still accepting proposals for workshops (Half-day to two days in length) (http://www.cnsorg.org/cns_meeting_workshops.htm ). If you want to propose a workshop please contact the workshop coordinator, Dieter Jaeger, at workshops@cnsorg.org. An archive of workshops held at last year's meeting is at http://www.cnsorg.org/Archives2007.htm ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: The CNS meeting is organized by the Organization for Computational Neuroscience President: Ranu Jung (Arizona State University, USA) Program chair: Bill Holmes (Ohio University, USA) Program co-chair: Don Johnson (Rice University, USA) Local organizer: Patrick Roberts (Oregon Health Sciences University, USA) Workshop coordinator: Dieter Jaeger (Emory University, USA) Program Committee: Victoria Booth (University of Michigan, USA) Sharon Crook (Arizona State University, USA) Markus Diesmann (RIKEN, Japan) Alex Dimitrov (Montana State University, USA) Jeanette Hellgren-Kotaleski (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) Theoden Netoff (University of Minnesota, USA) Hiroshi Okamato (RIKEN, Japan) Astrid Prinz (Emory University, USA) Michelle Rudolph (CNRS, France) Harel Shouval (University of Texas Medical Center, USA) Volker Steuber (University of Herfordshire, UK) ________________________________________________________________________ _____ OCNS - Organization for Computational Neurosciences, Inc. http://www.cnsorg.org -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 15020 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080529/ba1ec55e/attachment-0001.bin From ale at sissa.it Fri May 30 20:04:21 2008 From: ale at sissa.it (Alessandro Treves) Date: Sat May 31 15:13:32 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR EBBS SYMPOSIA Message-ID: <20080530200421.cqz2oyppwkc4koso@webmail.sissa.it> 41ST EBBS Annual General Meeting Rhodes, Greece September 14-18, 2009 CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR SYMPOSIA The 41st EBBS Annual General Meeting will be held on the Greek island of Rhodes, September 14-18, 2009. The local organising committee, chaired by Fotini Stylianopoulou is enthusiastically committed to the organisation of what will be an outstanding scientific event. The programme, as usual, will be entirely based upon plenary lectures and symposia plus free communications in the form of posters. To have a well-balanced and high scientific quality programme it is most important that the proposals reflect the scientific interests of the EBBS membership. We can only achieve these goals of scientific excellence and membership interest through active participation of EBBS members in formulation of the programme. The EBBS committee, acting as the programme committee, urges members to submit proposals for symposia on topics of their choice and to encourage colleagues, EBBS members or not, to submit proposals. Guidelines: ? Symposia may be proposed by EBBS members or non-members, with no geographical restrictions. ? The organizer should be an established researcher. ? Symposia are two hours in length and comprise four speakers. ? Speakers should ideally provide a balanced mix of presentations of a wide, synthesis or reviewing perspective on the topic covering several years of work, and descriptions of some new data, relevant to the topic. ? Symposia having one young speaker at the doctoral/postdoctoral level will be preferred. ? Speakers, and only speakers, receive a free registration. No other financial assistance is available. Download a form from http://www.ebbs-science.org/ and send your proposal as an attached file by e-mail before June 15, 2008 to the Programme Chair, Nicole van Steinb?chel nvsteinbuechel@med.uni-goettingen.de -- SISSA - Cognitive Neuroscience, now downtown in via Stock 2/2, V fl BUT NOTE, POSTAL ADDRESS: SISSA, via Beirut 2, 34014 Trieste, Italy tel:39-040-3787623 fax:39-040-3787615 http://people.sissa.it/~ale ---------------------------------------------------------------- SISSA Webmail https://webmail.sissa.it/ Powered by Horde http://www.horde.org/